Catch Me When You Can
by Innocent-Diamond
Summary: Excavating a new artifact sent him back thousands of years, only to help an herbalist trainee investigate a series of bizarre events. His present-day colleagues uncover the mystery behind the artifact, but both sides discover conspiracies that are both dangerous and connected.
1. Butterfly Effect

A figure laid lifelessly along the edge of the river. Rain soon fell, washing a faint red liquid down the stone path. Everyone sought for shelter to avoid the precipitation.

Everyone except a certain redhead, who carried a thick paper umbrella and approached the said figure.

She took a closer view and realized that it was a dead man. With a piece of cloth in between as a makeshift glove, she lifted the man's limbs one by one and tilted his head. After a few minutes more of rain, the red liquid that ran down the path was clear again.

"Chris, Soon... we have another one."

The other two girls gasped as they stood a great distance from the redhead while sharing an umbrella. "Is it the same cause of death?" they asked.

"It's **exactly** the same. The killer used a sharp weapon to slice the victim's neck, wrists, and ankles—all where major blood vessels run. The killer wanted blood, which is why the runoff rainwater from this body is barely tinted when seen from your distance."

"What do we do now, Alice?"

The redhead took out a crude notepad from her coat pocket and wrote notes. "No one will investigate these murders because they're too complicated for them, but never too complicated for me." She counted the total number of entries she had recorded overall and sighed. "What I need is a miracle..."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

A raven-haired youth focused his camera and captured a photo. A gust of wind blew, so he brushed his bangs aside. Unfortunately, the scene of the trees he wanted to capture was out of position because of the wind. The camera screen flashed a notification, saying that the memory card was full. The young man stood up and returned to his vehicle and turned on his laptop.

He connected the camera to his laptop via cable and transferred the photographs over. While waiting, his phone rang. "Hello?"

"Shun, how are you doing?"

The young man recognized the voice as his mother's. "Hi Mom. I'm fine, just photographing nature in my free time. I should be asking how **you're** doing. Why the sudden call?"

"I'm fine, Shun. Can't a mother call her son just to chat? I'm surprised that you have free time right now, despite your new job. Where are Dan and the others?"

"Joe has to obtain security clearance for a new archaeological site, so others and I are on break until approval." He checked the calendar on his laptop. "Mom, it's almost Mid-Autumn. I plan on coming home so we can go to your hometown."

"Shun, don't worry about me. Focus on work first. I can visit my hometown on my own."

"But I never miss Mid-Autumn." Shun's laptop beeped loudly, so he went to check what happened. "My group chat requests to video-call."

"See? I told you that you wouldn't have much free time. I'll talk to you later. Bye Shun!"

Shun sighed. "Bye Mom."

After hanging up, he activated video calling on his laptop. "I'm in the woods, where there's no Internet. Make it fast so that I don't waste my portable Wi-Fi. Dan, what are **you** laughing at?"

A brunette laughed uncontrollably, but eventually replied, "Dude, this is why you subscribe to an unlimited data cell phone plan!"

A mint-haired colleague groaned and smacked his head, "Dan, we don't have as much disposable income as you. Besides, Joe is the lead archaeologist, yet he still has the lowest plan offered by his phone company."

A young sandy blond man shook his head in response. "Can we not talk about this while on break, Ace? I just obtained clearance, which means you all need to be at the site within two hours."

Ace screamed at how quickly Joe responded. "All right, I get it! Fabia, can I carpool with you? My car broke down."

"Of course!" answered the navy-haired girl delightfully.

Joe wrapped up the conversation. "Since all of us know about the security clearance already, I expect none of you to be late. See you then!"

Everyone disconnected from the group chat until Shun noticed that Dan requested a private video chat. He answered it anyway and greeted with an unenthusiastic voice. "What now?"

"I've always wondered why you like doing photography during your free time."

"Because capturing memories is aesthetic. What **do** you want?"

"Are you sure you're not doing this because of someone else? I'm positive that a certain person at the recent archaeology conference mentioned that he or she 'likes blogs that post about nature photography'—"

"Dan, need I remind you that I starting photography in **high school**? If you have nothing more serious to talk about, then I'll hang up now."

"I'm just concerned that you're the only person in our group of top interns with no dating experience, and that this job might take up too much—"

"Good **bye**." Shun disconnected immediately and packed up all his stuff. He got into the driver's seat and drove away, but still thought about what Dan said. _I'd rather endure hours of training with Grandpa than talk about irrelevant topics with Dan._

He entered the coordinates of the new archaeological site into his phone. The GPS application suggested a shortcut, which Shun took for not long, because broken tree branches fell from above and blocked the entire path. He hit the brakes immediately, breathing deeply at the sight of danger. _Curse you, Dan. Your irrelevant video call made me late._

Shun parked, exited, and locked his vehicle before observing the mess in front of him. _I can't drag this away by hand._ He looked for tow cables in his back trunk, but found nothing. _That's right. I lent Dan my tow cables for a camping trip that he took with his parents. This is Dan's fault_ _ **again**_ _._

Just when Shun was about to board his vehicle, a large silver sports utility vehicle pulled up behind Shun. Two men wearing masks got off the vehicle, each holding a knife. "What do you want?" Shun asked.

Neither one of them spoke, and they simply ran toward Shun with their knives. Years of ninjutsu training helped Shun avoid every single attack, although he was disadvantaged due to lack of weapons. The two attackers cornered him to the pile of branches. With no other choice, Shun grabbed a twig and threw it at the silver-haired attacker. The twig hit the man's wrist, dropping the weapon.

Shun quickly grabbed the knife and made a cut on the other blond attacker. "I don't know who you are, or what I ever did to you, but you need to back off."

The silver-haired attacker who dropped the knife lunged at Shun, who elbowed the man in his chest strongly. He fell back and dropped something, all before using a hand sign to tell the blond attacker to return to the SUV. Without saying a word ever since they arrived, the two masked men drove away.

 _That was the most pointless experience ever._ Shun approached the item that the first man dropped. A string of brown beads carried a translucent, amber-brown pendant in the shape of a phoenix figure in profile position. _Did he drop this by accident or on purpose? This looks like a potential artifact, which means they might know that I'm on Joe's excavation team._

Shun placed the knife and pendant in his vehicle, and took a detour to the archaeological site. _Now I'm late because of that altercation._

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"On the count of three, we lift this casket!" ordered Joe. "One, two, three!"

The lead archaeologist and other colleagues lifted the casket from the dirt onto flat ground. Everyone else began dusting off dirt on the casket and other newly discovered artifacts. Shun arrived late and ran to Joe immediately. "We need to talk. It has to do with why I'm late."

"Um...sure?" He told others to continue working before walking Shun to another canopy. "Shun, I told you not to be late. What happened?"

"I was on my way here already, but tree branches blocked the path of the shortcut. An SUV came from nowhere, and two guys came to attack me with knives. I had no weapons on me, so fighting them off took time. One of them dropped this though." He took out the paper-wrapped phoenix pendant from his jacket pocket. "I don't know why they attacked me, or what this item is. Maybe you do."

"Unfortunately, I don't recall anything phoenix-shaped items mentioned in the artifacts that we found—"

"Professor Brown! We need your input on how to excavate this other item!" an intern screamed.

"I'll be there soon!" Joe then told Shun, "Put on your gear, and meet us over there. We'll talk about the phoenix pendant later."

"Understood." Shun put the phoenix pendant away and put on gloves. He approached the table, where Dan was dusting off small artifacts. "Need help?"

"Of course, I do! You're late! What happened?" Now it was Dan's turn to hear Shun's story. "Seriously? You have stalkers? That's not normal. What's even more not normal is the item you found."

"I told Joe, but he just got called off to—"

"Everyone, come and look!" Joe called everyone over to look at newly discovered artifacts. Unlike the vases, jewelry, furniture, or other items found earlier, he held up a metallic cube box with decorative decals all over. "This may be what we've been looking for the whole time."

Shun made his way through the crowd of colleagues and looked at the metal box. On the anterior face was a depressed slot of a familiar shape. "Joe, doesn't that shape look—"

"Run for your lives!" As a colleague's voice screamed, a silver SUV barged into the excavation site and ran over tents and tables. "Protect the artifacts!"

As everyone scurried to gather everything, a masked blond man got off the vehicle and stole the metallic box. "If you wish to see this box again, then bring me the pendant," he warned in a digitally-mixed voice before getting into the SUV again.

The raven-haired intern recognized the masked man and the vehicle. "They stole the box and want the pendant back. I'm going after them because I have the pendant."

"Shun, that's too dangerous! Come back!" Joe demanded.

It was too late. Shun already backed his vehicle out of the staff parking lot to chase after the SUV. Inside the SUV, a female passenger with short blue hair dialed a number on her phone. "Boss said that we need to get rid of the guy following us, not matter what."

The silver-haired driver smirked. "Perfect. Everyone, put your masks back on and show that punk how things are done."

After leading Shun on a long, faraway chase, the thieves parked the vehicle and got off. Shun got off as well. "First you block the shortcut, then you attack me, and now you steal an important artifact. I'm not over this."

In addition to the two attackers from before, the female passenger also got off the SUV. Shun carried the knife from earlier, bit his attackers now used large machetes. _Not only do they have one more person, but they also have larger weapons._ Shun used the knife as efficiently as possible, but he still couldn't overpower three attackers. One of them hit Shun in the abdomen, which sent him flying back and knocked pendant out of his pocket. "You're not getting that!"

The female attacker reached for the pendant, but Shun cut that hand quickly before grabbing the item. Suddenly, it glowed in his hand as Shun felt a bizarre surge of energy flowing through him. "What the...?"

The attackers stood at a distance before attacking Shun again, but he overpowered them easily this time, to the point of causing bleeding wounds on his attackers. While they were conscious, Shun grabbed the metal box from the SUV and brought it back to his own vehicle. The attackers quickly admitted defeat and drove off.

Shun observed the designs of the metal box before taking pictures with his phone. _I wonder who made intricate designs like this._ He compared the depressed slot to the phoenix pendant, and concluded that this was a match. Out of curiosity, he fitted the pendant into the slot. The entire box glowed yellow as the cover of the box lifted. Bright light from inside the box blinded Shun.

The next thing he noticed was that he was lying down on a dirt pavement, next to someone else. _Where am I?_ Shun brushed the dirt off and tapped the person next to him. "Sorry to bother you. Can you tell me—wait, you're dead!"

A bystander heard Shun screaming and yelled, "Help! Someone got murdered!"

A group of patrol officers in bizarre clothing heard and saw what happened. The group leader ordered, "Did someone say 'murder'? Arrest that person next to the dead body right now!"

"Wait! I have nothing to do with this!" Shun tried fighting off the patrol officers, but they all subdued him with long metal swords. Although he didn't train with weapons often, Shun could tell that the swords were real. _What is this place? Who still uses old weapons like these? And why is everyone wearing weird clothes?_

As the patrol officers dragged Shun away, a redhead watched from a distance and shook her head. "They have this all wrong. He clearly has **nothing** to do with this."

A blonde girl asked the redhead, "Alice, how can you be so sure?"

"Chris, I know who the victim is. The person didn't die from exsanguination, so it has nothing to do with what I've been investigating privately. I **do** know someone else in the community who is a very like suspect."

"What will do you now?"

"Patrol officers arrive when the cases are easiest to solve. I need to visit the person that they just arrested."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

As the thieves drove their vehicle away, they knocked over some important machinery, which short-circuited and set the site on fire. Joe and his interns stood far away as they watched the uncovered artifacts succumb to the flames. "This is bad..."

"What's taking Shun so long?" complained Dan while pacing around. "I can't just stand here and do nothing! Did you see those people who stole the box and blew up the site? Now we'll never get anything done!"

Ace nodded. "Dan's right. We're going to find Shun's vehicle using GPS. Dan, lead the way."

"Not you two as well!" Joe cried. "I don't want you getting lost like Shun!"

Dan and Ace ignored Joe's warning and boarded Dan's vehicle. "Ace, track Shun's GPS location on the company laptop and find the shortest path there."

"Got it."

After Ace located the location of Shun's vehicle, Dan drove off quickly while staying within speed limits. At their destination, nobody was in sight. Dan exited first and walked around. "This is Shun's vehicle, but there's nobody here."

"I see blood and skid marks." Ace noticed. "It's likely that the people who stole the metal box were here and escaped, but we don't know whose blood this is."

"There are too many faint blood splatters as well." The brunette approached Shun's vehicle and pointed to the metal box. "That's weird. If those thieves came to steal the box, then why is it still here? Where's Shun?"

"Hold on." Ace also approached Shun's vehicle and pointed to a dashcam inside. "Maybe this recorded what happened here. It looks like it's from the company. Maybe I can access the internal storage remotely."

"Good luck."

Ace entered commands into his laptop and accessed the dashcam's internal storage. "Found it! Watch this." He played a short video of the fight between Shun and the three attackers. "You all told me that Shun trained ninjutsu since childhood, but this altercation is epic."

"But all three attackers have masks, so that won't help," Dan complained. Ace increased the speed until they saw Shun take out the phoenix pendant. "What's he doing now?"

The mint-haired intern slowed down the clip, but after Shun placed the pendant into the slot, the video turned into fuzzy grayness. "That was anticlimactic! I wanted—"

"I have an incoming call." Dan took out and answered his phone. "What's up, Joe? Ace and I found Shun's car but not him- "

"You two need to come back now. I called the police over to report this incident, but they found find a heavily injured person near the premises."

"Injured person?! What if that's Shun?!"

"It's **not**. Just come back."

Dan hung up and pounded his fist into his other hand. "Ace, we have to go. Joe wants us to return because the police found a heavily injured person. Shun will have to wait."

"That's even worse than being anticlimactic..."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

The patrol officers tied Shun's hands behind his back and left him in a prison cell. He tried to break loose, but the knots were too tight. _This is still all Dan's fault. Each thing led to another._

He heard a prison guard talk to someone outside. "How may I help you?"

"I need to interrogate the prisoner on behalf of my grandfather," replied a female voice.

"Dr. Michael is on the case already? Well then, please come in. The limit is ten minutes, as always."

 _Who's visiting me? Or is she visiting someone else that's in here?_ Shun moved back against the stone wall and felt the phoenix pendant in his pocket. _Did this happen because I put the pendant into the slot? Why did I even do that?_

Footsteps echoed from the entrance until a redhead girl arrived on the basement floor. She approached Shun's prison cell and knelt so she was at eye level with Shun. "Hi. I hope you're not scared."

"Scared?" Shun mocked. "I arrive in the middle of nowhere and get accused of murder. How much more scared can I be?"

"I know you're not from here. I don't recognize you. I do know that you **didn't** kill the victim. I'm certain of that."

Taken aback by the girl's calm response to his sharp words, Shun relaxed and asked, "You trust me? Even though I'm not from here? Because of what?"

"I'll find the real killer, make that person confess, solve the case, and save you. I swear."

Shun had no idea what to think about this redhead girl in front of him, only that she was extremely self-confident and not afraid at all.


	2. Helping Hands

"Miss Gehabich, you have five more minutes!" shouted the same prison guard.

Shun was stilled confused about his situation. "We don't know each other, but you're confident that you can find the real killer. Based on **what**?"

"I know the victim **and** who killed him. Simple as that."

"Then why are you here? "

She smiled, much to Shun's surprise. "I wanted to make sure that an innocent person like you wouldn't be forced to confess to a crime that you didn't commit. My name's Alice. I'll be back."

"You're not asking for my name?"

"I can ask you after you get released." After giving Shun a thumbs-up, she left the prison halls.

Shun leaned against the wall and sighed. _If she saw the murder happen earlier, maybe she saw how I came here in the first place._

Alice exited the prison hall and went straight home. "Grandfather! Are you here?"

An elderly man gathered some items into a messenger bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Alice, I was just about to find you. Please sit this one out."

"Uh...what are you talking about?"

"I already know that you went to find the young man that was arrested for murder. Although I usually let you help me, I suggest you stay out of this one because you already talked to the suspect."

"Grandfather, isn't that what solving crimes is about? Ask for information, right? I can solve this one on my own."

"Solving a crime requires being bipartisan. Visiting the suspect without my permission already introduces potential bias."

"But—" Her grandfather closed the front doors upon exiting, leaving Alice alone at home. _It wasn't his fault at all. I saw the murder with my own eyes._ Someone knocked on the main door outside. "Who is it?"

"It's me," Chris replied. "I saw your grandfather leave the house."

"Chris, come in!" As Chris pushed the doors open, Alice ran out to the courtyard to greet her friend. "Thank goodness you're here. We need to find someone."

"Again? You ditched me earlier when you went to the prison hall. Who are you looking for now?"

"That one neighbor who works at the marble mines is responsible. I saw him drop large chunks of marble on the victim from the bridge above."

"Marble mine? You'd better hurry, because the workers might be done with lunch break. But Alice, why so serious about this case?"

The redhead gathered necessary items into her purse and dragged Chris outside before locking the doors. "Because I won't let an innocent person take the fall for someone else's work."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"You're all cleared, although I don't suggest working at your burnt-out excavation."

"Thank you." After the police cleared every archaeological staff member from being a potential suspect, Joe returned to the group of his closest interns. "I know Shun's still missing, but at least the police cleared him as well. I didn't expect the stab victim to die so quickly."

"Are the police going to look for Shun then?" Dan asked. "He's not answering us."

"Unfortunately, a missing-persons report requires the person to be missing for twenty-four hours. Right now, the police are releasing items that we **can** work on, but the archaeological site is still blocked off because of the sabotage."

"Marucho must be glad to be absent because of surgery..." Ace recalled.

"I'll video-call him right now." Dan took out his phone and called Marucho. "Marucho, what's up? We have important news to tell you."

"I'm still resting in the hospital room," the young blond replied. "What's so urgent?"

Joe grabbed Dan's phone and answered, "An archaeological site that I've been dying to uncover was destroyed by artifact thieves. Now Shun is missing, and the field is blocked off because of damage and a murder."

"Joe, I'm sorry to hear that. I wish I could be with you all right now, but the doctors say that my broken leg needs a few more days to heal."

"Few more days?" Joe returned Dan's phone and placed a hand on Dan's shoulder. "Dan, I'm putting you in charge of the archaeological investigation."

"What? Why me?!"

"As lead archaeologist, I need to assist the police regarding the recent events, so I'll be away often. You know the most about the artifacts that we excavated."

"But Joe, Shun's still missing."

"I know, but those thieves wouldn't steal the metal box for nothing while demanding the phoenix pendant that Shun showed me. We can't find it, but we still need to find out why this is happening."

Dan nodded. "Thanks for believing in me, Joe. Ace, Fabia, and I will start immediately." As the trio made their way to the parking lot, Dan received another call. "Runo, what now?"

"Dan, when are you coming back?"

"What am I supposed to come back for?"

"You've been gone for ages, and I thought you became an artifact yourself."

"Runo, that's not funny. If you don't mind, I need to go because our site blew up, Shun went missing, and a dead body appeared from nowhere. Good—"

"Wait! Shun's missing?!"

"Yeah. We have no idea what's going on. Joe needs to assist the police, and Marucho's still hospitalized. I only have Ace and Fabia around to help me."

"Is there anything I can do to help?"

"Not really. It takes too long for you to come here from house. We'll be in touch." Before Runo could say anything else, Dan hung up and sighed. _What have I gotten myself into?_

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

To preserve evidence, Michael and other patrol guards set up a large white tent over the body. "There's much blunt force trauma to the head and back, consistent with the body lying in prone position when discovered." He stepped outside and saw the bridge above that connected one elevated road to another. "Something fell from that height and killed the victim, but there's no murder weapon—"

"Let me go!"

"You'd better confess!"

Everyone rushed outside to see Alice dragging a neighbor to the white tent. Michael saw his granddaughter and shouted, "Alice, what is the meaning of this?"

The redhead let go of the angry neighbor and explained. "This person is the real killer. He works at the marble mines, and I saw him throw large chunks of marble on the victim from the bridge above."

"You can't prove that!" the neighbor argued. "Besides, the foreman takes all the marble that we dig out."

"I don't care what you used. I saw you kill the victim. After dropping the chunks of marble on the victim, this descended the bridge and carried the bloody chunks away. I went after him **once** already, but he ran too far. That was when the raven-haired person appeared from nowhere and screamed about the same dead body."

Everything was silent for a moment, until other neighbors spoke up. "I saw this guy walking around the bridge earlier. He **might** have done it."

"I see him walk back suspiciously every time he gets off a shift."

"He argued with the victim a few days ago, but wasn't sure about what."

As more neighbors chimed in to blame the neighbor, the doctor silenced the crowd. "I appreciate all of your witness statements, but we need solid evidence. Where is the murder weapon?"

The crowd became silent, but then the neighbor suddenly screamed, "Fine! I did it! It was my fault!"

Everyone gasped in disbelief, even Alice. "What motivated you to kill somebody?"

"We only had a simple argument. I've been stealing small pieces of marble to decorate my residence. The victim lived next to me and complained that my new décor was blocking sunlight from reaching his garden. I wanted to teach him a lesson earlier, but it went too far."

The doctor sighed in response. "Fellow patrol guards, you heard this man's confession. Although I know nothing about the raven-haired man that you arrested earlier, he is definitely innocent."

The group leader immediately discussed with his colleagues. "Since this man already confessed, we should arrest him and release the other person. We'll be back."

Alice cheered unstoppably until her grandfather came closer and cast a shadow over. "Yes, Grandfather?"

"If you told me that you witnessed the murder, I probably wouldn't have asked you to sit this one out. Next time, don't act so fast. You might not always be so lucky."

"Yes, Grandfather. I won't do that again." While her grandfather returned to the tent to clean up, Alice saw the patrol guards escort Shun outside while taking the angry neighbor away. "Remember me? You're free now."

Shun observed the bizarre architecture of the neighborhood to everyone's clothes and hairstyles. "What happened?"

"I found the killer, and he confessed under pressure."

"That's not what I meant. Why are you all wearing these clothes? Why are the buildings so weird?" He took out his phone to check the time, but it only gave incorrect numbers. "Why is there no service? What kind of a movie set is this?"

Alice's expression turned blank after being asked many confusing questions. "What's a movie set?"

Shun didn't know how to answer that. "You're not filming a movie here?"

"What's a movie?"

 _Where am I? Why is everything different from what I'm used to seeing?_ Then he remembered the pictures of the metal box on his phone and showed them to Alice. "Do you know what this—"

Suddenly, Alice grabbed his hand that carried the phone and pushed it back toward him. "I know you're confused after being accused of murder. I also know that you're not from here and want to go home. Now that this is over, you can tell me your name now."

The raven-haired youth let go of the redhead's hand. "Shun Kazami."

"I told you that I'd save you, Shun. Before you go home, you should have a good night's sleep. Return in better condition than when you left."

"But where would I go? I don't even know how I came here, or what this place is."

"We're in Vestroia, a monarchy ruled by King Zenoheld and Prince Hydron. As for shelter, I can ask Grandfather if you can stay with us for a few days."

 _Vestroia...that's what our latest excavation project focuses on. But Vestroia existed two thousand years ago._ Shun put his phone away and replied, "If you can help me return home, then I'll take all chances."

"I don't have any solid ideas yet, but we'll definitely come up with something. Follow me."

Alice skipped down the path home as Shun walked and watched from behind. _I don't know_ _ **why**_ _I came here, but at least someone is on my side._

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Marucho entered the company lobby and greeted everyone. "Hi everyone. The doctors said that my foot was healing faster than expected, so I'm out of the hospital now!"

"That's great!" Dan jumped out of his chair and his colleague. "Now we have four people to work on the project at hand! Ace and Fabia are still analyzing the metal box. Maybe your fresh eyes will give us something new."

"I'll try." Marucho walked around furniture to the round table where Ace and Fabia were. "I'm back! Tell me what you have so far."

Ace reported his notes first. "I can't find any cracks or hinges on this metal cube box. How does it to open then? We can't use violent methods."

Fabia then slid her notepad across the table to Marucho. "The laser scanner determined that the box is a perfect cube. There are large ornaments that suggest the box should be rested in this upright orientation. The five visible faces all have a rough blurry pattern. There's a small depressed slot in the center of each face. The posterior face has nothing at all."

"Don't forget the weird symbols on the corner of the top face," Ace reminded. "It's definitely not in English."

"I learned so much already..." The blond intern put on a pair of gloves and touched the said symbols. "We can photograph and identify these visuals using our digital database."

"I'll do it!" Dan used his phone to take pictures, then connected his phone to a company laptop. "Which reference library do we use?"

"Start with ancient dictionaries. Then use everything else."

"Got it." The brunette followed Marucho's command and clicked around until potential matches popped up on the screen. "We have something!"

After Dan rearranged some wires, all four interns looked at the images projected on a white board. Marucho walked closer and pushed his glasses. "The closest match suggest that the symbols mean 'infinity' and 'mountain' in ancient Vestroian language."

"Ancient Vestroian?!" the other three interns gasped. "That's from at least two thousand years ago!"

"My point exactly. We found this metal box nearby, so this area must've been a part of Ancient Vestroia. 'Infinity Mountain' was probably around here during Ancient Vestroia. Hopefully, it still exists today."

Dan opened up the browser to pull up online maps. "The only highly-elevated land nearby is an area called Infinite Hills, but it's occupied by many residents now. Marucho, are we really going to explore this place?"

"What else can we do? As Ace noticed, there's no easy way to open the box. No one would engrave symbols into an intricate metal box like this for nothing."

Fabia rotated the laptop toward her and calculated the distance from their work building to Infinite Hills. "Guys, I'm not against investigating, but it's an extremely long drive. I suggest starting tomorrow or on a later date."

Ace pointed to all the other artifacts in the first-floor lobby. "We still have all that to work on, but I want to eat first."

The other three interns sighed as they followed the mint-haired intern outside, although none of them knew that they were being spied on to begin with.

Standing behind an SUV at a far distance from the work building was a woman with short, teal blue hair. "Shadow, did you hear that? They're going to Infinite Hills tomorrow."

"When was this?!" A silver-haired man crouched down behind another vehicle as he watched the interns enter Dan's car. "I couldn't hear anything that they said inside."

A tall blond man walked behind Shadow and slapped the latter on the back. "Clearly, you suck at installing bugs."

"Shut up, Sid."

Another woman with dark blue hair tied into a bun approached the first woman. "I just installed bugs and tracking devices on their vehicles, Mylene. They won't escape our sight when they leave for Infinite Hills."

"Good work, Lena. If only **those** two worked just as a hard." Mylene switched earpiece frequencies and demanded, "Everyone, we're going back to headquarters right now."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"Thanks for letting him stay here, Grandfather."

After receiving permission to let her guest stay, Alice returned to Shun, who stood outside the house and stared at everything. "This feels weird."

"It's not your home after all, Shun. Come inside first. It's cold outside."

As Shun entered the front courtyard of the two-story house, he turned on his phone and looked through the all pictures of the metal box that he took before coming here. _There's seriously no service at all._ "Alice, can you help me with something?"

The redhead returned with a pot of hot tea and teacups. "Ask away."

Shun showed her the image of the weird symbols on the metal box. "Do you know what this says?"

Alice squinted and gasped. "This is Ancient Vestroian. Grandfather has some books on this in the library. Be right back. Drink some tea first."

The raven-haired youth drank his tea and continued looking around. _There's no electricity either. Everyone's clothes resemble the paintings discovered from all the previous archaeological sites. Looks like I did travel back in time._

The redhead returned with a book in her hands. "This is the only dictionary that Grandfather has. Let's hope it helps." She flipped through the pages until she identified each symbol and wrote down the translations. "The symbols say, 'Infinity Mountain'. That place is far from here. Do you need to go there?"

"I'm not sure..."

"If you do, then we should depart tomorrow. By the way, what is that?"

"This?" Shun assumed Alice was referring to his phone. _She won't understand what it is._ "It's nothing. Just—"

"Alice!" called her grandfather from upstairs. "Can you prepare a honey loquat cough syrup? Also, I see Chris walking by. She might be looking for you."

Alice closed the book and stood up. "Shun, I'll be back. I have a friend coming over, but don't mind her."

"Where are you going?"

"I need to make a prescription for one of Grandfather's patients."

As soon as Alice left, Chris entered the living room and saw the unexpected guest before helping herself to tea. "You're a fresh face. Alice doesn't usually invite patients into the house."

"Patient?" He then remembered what Alice said. "Of Dr. Michael? You're mistaken. I'm just a guest. Who are you?"

"I'm Chris, one of Alice's friends. We've known each other for years, but I've never seen her invite a guest into the house before." She set her teacup down and leaned forward, staring at Shun with a deadly gaze. "You're the guy that was wrongly accused of murder."

"So?"

"She insisted that you were innocent and knew who the real killer was. I'm glad that everything came out well in the end."

 _Alice watched the whole time?_ "What does that even mean. Who **are** you people?"

"I'm just a friend. Everyone looks to Dr. Michael when investigating a suspicious situation. He also opens a walk-in clinic and teaches Alice to prepare prescriptions."

 _Why is a doctor being called to solve crimes?_ "I'm still lost."

Alice returned to the living room and tapped Shun's shoulder. "I cleaned up the guest room. You can stay there."

"Thanks, Alice."

"And Chris, what's up?"

"Soon's family still has an event going on all day. I came here because I'm bored. I'll leave you and your guest alone now. See you tomorrow."

Shun watched the blonde leave and asked, "What **do** you do?"

"What do you mean?"

"Chris told me that you help your grandfather prepare prescriptions, yet you and your grandfather also work to find evidence to solve weird incidents."

"Oh, that. Grandfather used to work in both the palace's medical and administrative departments. He retired and came back after obtaining a license to practice medicine in the public. People say he's the least biased and most logical person, so he gets called to give a second opinion on disputes. I just package prescriptions for patients. Resolving disputes isn't my thing."

"You solved my situation, though."

"Because I knew you're innocent. I just really love herbology and learn from Grandfather whenever I can. Anyway, it's getting dark. You should rest, especially after a long day."

"I don't know if I can fall asleep."

"You miss everyone at home, don't you?"

Shun simply stared at the redhead and nodded.

"I knew it the moment I saw you. Rest now so that you'll have energy when we hike up Infinity Mountain tomorrow. I can reheat some soup if you're hungry."

"It's fine. Thanks for everything you've done so far, Alice." Shun stood up and entered the guest room. He stood against the window and held the phoenix pendant up to the moonlight. _I wonder what Dan and the others are doing. Maybe I'll find answers tomorrow._


	3. Fruitful and Fruitless

"I **think** this is the right way..."

Alice and Shun departed the Gehabich residence before sunrise to find Infinity Mountain. The redhead tapped her compass a few times until the raven-haired youth asked, "Are we lost?"

"Infinity Mountain is basically the **entire** mountain. I just can't find a single person or residence in sight."

Shun looked around and saw no one either. He looked back at Alice, and then her woven makeshift backpack. "What's all that for?"

"This box? Normally, I pick herbs and other plants in the morning for Grandfather to use in prescriptions. I brought it with me in case I find anything useful."

"That's smart..." Suddenly, a man crossed a dirt path while carrying buckets of water. "Excuse me! Can you help us?"

The man approached the pair and asked, "How may I help you?"

"Is this Infinity Mountain? Do you know about metal box that's shaped like a square on all sides?"

"This **is** Infinity Mountain, but I don't know about the box you're talking about. Most of us are farmers because the mountain is primary rural land. Maybe the mysterious person that lives in the forests knows."

The travelers exchanged glances and asked, "What mysterious person?"

"Just a recluse who rarely shows his face. He tells his servant to tell us things, all of which is true or will eventually come true. I can take you there now.

The farmer led Shun and Alice through tall bamboo forests until reaching a cottage. After their road guide left, Shun approached the front gate first and called, "Is anyone home?"

Alice eventually caught up. "I hear something."

An old, balding man with short gray hair wearing navy-blue scholarly robes exited the cottage. "Visitors! No one has come by in a long time, not since my master decided to hide his face from the world. He **was** expecting you, though. My name is Kato."

Again, Shun and Alice exchanged glances and asked, "Your master was expecting us?"

"Well, he was only expecting this raven-haired lad here. I was once a young boy when I studied under master. He often went faraway on journeys of self-discovery, but I always stayed to study. **He** is the recluse that you hear about. **I** am not. Please, have a seat at the tea table." As Shun and Alice sat down, Kato returned with a pot of tea and tea cups. "Have a drink."

"Thanks." The pair drank their tea until Shun spoke up. "Kato, do you know about a metal box that's square-shaped on all four sides?" He then took out the phoenix pendant. "There's a slot on the top face that's shaped like this."

"Oh my..." Kato leaned forward and squinted. "This pendant has healing properties. It will bring you good health. As for the box, my master never told me about that before. I assure you that he's still alive and possibly looks younger than me. He claims to have discovered the Fountain of Youth and other oddities."

Shun leaned toward Alice and whispered, "Can I trust this person?"

Alice shrugged. "The farmer from earlier said that every word coming out of from this residence is true. We have no choice."

Kato poured tea into everyone's tea cups again. "Perhaps you may want to visit another time when my master is back from his journey. He likes to leave and return at the most inconvenient times. Maybe you'll be fated to see him another day." With that said, Kato cleared the tea table and went inside the cottage without exiting.

Shun stood up and twirled the pendant in his hand. "That was...not productive."

"Shun, what do we do now? We achieved nothing."

 _Looks like I'm stuck here until who knows when._ "Our only option is to go back to your house."

"I'm sorry that it didn't come out the way you wanted, Shun."

The raven-haired visitor stopped walking and turned around. "Alice, what are you apologizing for? It's not your fault that the mysterious person doesn't want to see us, or that Kato has no idea what we're talking about. I should be apologizing to you for getting in the way of picking herbs in the early morning."

"Shun, I said I'd help you, and I know that means rescheduling my daily activities. Now that we're done here, I can still gather some herbs before returning home. It might get hot when we return, though."

"I'll do anything to make up for taking up your time."

"Are you sure?"

"I insist."

Alice removed the wooden box off her back and handed it to Shun. "You can carry this while I explore and pick herbs. Hope you don't mind."

Shun smiled and slung the strap over his shoulder. "Not at all."

The redhead took a head start up a dirt path and found a variety of useful herbs already. "Most of the plants are here are new to me. I picked some in case Grandfather might know what they are."

"Where do you usually pick herbs?"

"Anywhere closer to home, just not Infinity Mountain. This place is too far for me to return in time when Grandfather opens his clinic. Most of his patients need prescriptions immediately. Sometimes we have enough herbs in stock. Other times, we don't."

"Then I definitely interrupted your daily schedule by coming to Infinity Mountain instead."

"Shun, don't worry about it." She opened the box cover and placed some herbs inside. "Before leaving, I made sure that we had enough herbs in stock **and** that I packaged enough prescriptions for common illness or for people coming to pick up. What we **can** do now is to collect as many herbs to make up for the lost time."

Shun knelt and picked some leaves. "How do you know which is good or bad?"

"Memorization is key. For example, those leaves that you picked are from wild spinach. Grandfather used it once to treat a patient who had tired blood. I think people started recognizing wild spinach and began incorporating in daily meals, so rarely anyone who visits the clinic gets diagnosed with tired blood now."

 _Tired blood is the same as anemia_. "I'll keep that in mind. Alice, since you know so much, how come you only stay at home and package prescriptions for patients? I'm sure your skills will be helpful elsewhere as well."

"Actually..." Alice picked a flower and tore the petals one by one. "The royal palace is holding entry examinations for various positions, most of which require people to stay and work in the palace. I'm fine with earning an herbalist license so that I can open my own herb shop."

"Sounds like a good start. I'm sure you'll get there."

"But I don't want to leave Grandfather behind, though." The redhead picked more herbs and placed them in the wooden box. "I think we have enough. Let's go home."

"Alice, I seriously think you should try out for the herbalist exam."

"Maybe when we're done resolving your situation, Shun."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Dan called Runo as he waited for the others to gather at his car. "Hey Runo. How are you doing?"

"You have the nerves to call after ignoring me for so long?!"

"Well, I'm not ignoring you now. Just wanted to say that Ace, Fabia, Marucho, and I are going to Infinite Hills today, so I'll be busy. Cell service might be bad there. That's all."

"You're only calling me just to say that you'll be gone for the whole day?! Where's your common sense?!"

"Sorry, Runo. We need to solve this mystery as soon as possible. I don't think the police will help with finding Shun, so everything's up to us now. Bye!" Once Dan hung up, the other three interns approached him. "Somebody set up the GPS at the front seat for me."

"I'll do it." Ace typed directions into his phone and placed it on Dan's car phone holder as the brunette turned the engine on. Were you calling Runo earlier?"

"Just telling her where we'll be so she doesn't get worried. Don't you call home to say when you'll be out for a long trip?"

Fabia clicked her seatbelt and leaned forward. "We call our **parents** about what we're doing, but you specially called **Runo**. What's up with that?"

"She called me the other day, so I think it's fair to call her back."

"Right..." answered Ace and Fabia skeptically.

After two hours of driving, the interns finally arrived at the entrance of Infinite Hills, where residences were built strategically to minimize damage from natural causes. However, the area was mostly rural to begin with, so everything was in bad shape. Dan drove too fast and hit a pothole, shaking the entire vehicle. "Sorry, that's was an accident!"

"Dan, fix your rearview mirror!" Ace yelled.

The brunette readjusted the mirror and saw a silver SUV in the reflection. "Has that SUV been following us the whole time?"

The other three interns turned around. "You might be right..."

"It looks like the one that crashed our site. Sit tight, everyone. There's only one way to get rid of unwanted tailgaters."

Fabia pressed numbers on her phone. "I'll call the police in the meantime."

Dan hit the gas pedal and drove even faster. The SUV behind them tried to catch up, but all the bulky spying equipment in the SUV made it difficult for Shadow to drive carefully. "We're losing them!"

Mylene checked the sound systems to see if they could still locate Dan's vehicle. "Wireless service is bad here, and they're already out of range."

"We made a wrong turn," Shadow lamented. "Now what?"

"Get off and walk with our equipment until we find them again."

Everyone got off the SUV and carried all their tracking equipment. Meanwhile, Dan managed to drive into the correct roads and parked in front of a large set of old wooden double doors. "The SUV is gone for now, but are we sure that we arrived at the right place?"

"We've been around the entire residential area, and this is the only place with a stable-looking house," Marucho answered. "Everything else is abandoned farmland."

"The map lied to us," Ace scoffed.

"Not necessarily." Fabia approached a street sign on the wall and blew the dust away. "We're standing on Infinity Alley right now. There's no other house on this street. I saw other street signs with different names. This sign here can't be a coincidence."

"We have no choice but to enter this residence then." Dan first knocked on the doors, but the doors swung open by themselves. "Should I be concerned?"

Ace shoved the brunette inside. "Just walk."

Behind the double doors was a small courtyard and an open-doored house made of bamboo and other wood. There appeared to be no electrical or water systems. Marucho gasped at the sight of the old infrastructure. "I'm surprised that old houses like this still exist."

"This area is still under government control," Fabia reminded. "There's an altar inside the house with a bookshelf on top." She approached the altar and blew dust off an old plaque. "This plaque is also in Ancient Vestroian. Does anyone have a translator?"

"I got this!" Dan approached the plaque and scanned it with his translation app. "The symbols on the plaque roughly translate to this: 'The book that you desire is already in your hands'. That made no sense."

"Maybe we need to touch around with our hands." Marucho put on gloves and patted random areas of the altar. "Maybe it's not as easy as—something's happening!"

As soon as the blond pushed back the plaque from earlier, the shelf above the altar vibrated as a hinged panel popped out of the shelf, knocking a small book over. Inside the hidden compartment was another book, which Dan took out with gloved hands. "That was boring. Why do we need this book?"

"If you don't want it, then we'll take it!" The interns turned around and saw masked assailants in the courtyard outside. One took out a machete and ran first. "Give me that book!"

"Never! Marucho, run as far away as possible!" After Dan stuffed the book in the blond's backpack, he grabbed a broken branch and swung it at the four attackers. "Get out of here!"

"Dan, we'll help you!"

As Ace and Fabia fought off the other attackers, Marucho tried sneaking out of the courtyard behind the trees, only to be stopped by another assailant. "Going somewhere?"

"Get away from me!" Marucho threw rocks in self-defense before running away, but tripped on other rocks and fell. "Help me!"

Sirens wailed in the distance, and the lead female assailant called the attack off. "They must've called the police. We're leaving."

Once the attackers left, the other three interns gathered around Marucho. "Are you okay? Did they steal the book?"

"The book is still in my backpack, but I sprained my ankle."

Fabia knelt and carried Marucho on her back. "Even if I called the police to chase the assailants away, **we** could still be charged for trespassing. Better leave now."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Alice stepped inside her house first and saw a large plate weighing down prescription on the tea table. "Grandfather should've put these away in a drawer. It's really windy today."

"Alice, where do you want me to drop off the herbs?" Shun asked.

"Leave them kitchen counter. I'll—"

"Alice!" A high-pitched female voice screamed from outside. "We have a **huge** problem!"

"Runo? What happened now?"

 _Did Alice just call the other girl 'Runo'?_ Shun set the box down and ran outside to see Alice talking to a bluenette wearing pigtails and a winter overcoat. "Runo, how did you get—"

Alice turned around as Runo leaned over to glance at Shun. "Alice, you have a guest over?"

"Uh...hold on." The redhead dragged Shun aside and whispered. "Shun, you might be confused. Runo's been my neighbor for years. Maybe she just reminds you of someone from home."

"She actually does..." _I haven't seen Runo ever since moving from Wardington to Bayview, but the resemblance is unbelievable..._

Alice returned to the bluenette and apologized. "I didn't mean you scare you like that. Runo, this is Shun Kazami. He's a temporary house guest. Shun, this is Ruriko Minazuki, one of my neighbors. I call her 'Runo' because I couldn't pronounce 'Ruriko' when I was younger, but the nickname stuck with her."

 _That makes sense now._ "Nice to meet you, Runo."

"Nice to meet you too, Shun. Right now, we need to go to Dan's house and convince him to drop out of the army!"

"Dan?!" screamed Shun after hearing another familiar name.

"Army?!" Alice rubbed her forehead. "I thought he was only kidding. Shun, do you want to—"

"I'm **definitely** going with you."

After Alice locked the front doors, the trio crossed a few streets and bridges to Dan's residence, where the brunette brandished his sword during training. Runo whispered, "I've never seen him this serious before."

 _Me either,_ Shun thought. "When did he become this serious?"

"Dan signed up to join the army, and after multiple physical exams, he made it. A few days ago, he said he had excellent news, but still hasn't told me.

Alice stood at the vertex of a bridge and shouted, "Dan, we're here to visit you!"

The brunette stopped practicing and put his sword away, "Alice! Runo! Just in time!" He opened the back gate of the backyard fence. "Come in, guys. Who's this guy?"

The redhead introduced as usual. "Dan, this is Shun Kazami. He's helping at Grandfather's clinic for a few days. Shun, this is Dan Kurosaka, also a long-time neighbor. As you heard, he joined the royal army—"

"And was given the opportunity to be a general-in-training!" Dan interrupted. "That's the good news that I've been waiting to tell you." Suddenly, he picked up another sword that leaned against the fence and tossed it to Shun, who caught it quickly. "You have some fast reflexes. Care to go against me?"

 _This Runo is the same as the classmate that I knew from before, but this Dan is more serious than the best friend I knew since childhood. As for using a sword..._ Shun tightened his grip and pointed the blade at Dan. "Bring it on."

"Maybe bringing Shun was a bad idea," Alice regretted.

Runo dragged the redhead away to Dan's house fence. "Joining the army was a bad idea to begin with!"

As the girls watched from a safe distance, the guys charged at each other while using their swords strategically. Dan had more experience and went offensively against Shun each time, leaving the latter with minimal space to defend himself. "Pretty skilled with the use of sword yourself, Shun."

"Wait until you have to fight without a weapon at all."

The two achieved a stalemate with their swords blocking each other, but Dan stepped back and approached Shun again in a fast spinning motion. Second later, the brunette knocked out his opponent's sword. "Guess who doesn't have a weapon now?"

 _Spoke too soon..._ After Shun watched his sword land on another patch of grass, Dan charged forward with his sword pointed steadily. The raven-haired opponent noticed and dodged quickly. After pulling sleeves forward to cover his hands, Shun stopped the blade using his palms, much to everyone surprise. _Did I just do that?!_

Dan gasped and turned pale when he realized that his sword was stabilized. "Shun, are you doing what I think you're doing?!"

"Maybe **that** will teach Dan a lesson," Runo whispered.

"But not at the expense of Shun's safety," Alice worried.

Shun flipped his hands over, rotating the sword and prying it out of Dan's hand as the brunette screamed pain. He then sneaked up and successfully landed his hand centimeters from Dan's throat. "I win."

The brunette breathed quickly at the dangerous situation he was in. "You...are amazing!" After Shun let go, Dan stood up held out a thumbs-up. "You're my best friend now!"

 _ **Now**_ _this Dan isn't that different from the best friend I knew._ "Really? You declare me your best friend after knowing me for less than an hour **and** losing to me?"

"Not very often do I meet people in this neighborhood with superb physical skills, you know."

Runo ran over and slapped the brunette on the back of his head. "This is all your fault! You nearly gave us all heart attacks!"

"But Runo, practice makes perfect!"

While those two argued, Shun pulled his sleeves back and stared at his hands. _What did I even do?_ Suddenly, someone grabbed his left hand. "Alice, what are you—"

"That was a dangerous counterattack!" she yelled. "One mistake could cause injuries to your hand and even yourself!"

He pulled hand back. "Alice, why are you overreacting? I know what I'm doing."

"I still think you should apply some ointment when we go back."

Dan approached Shun again and offered his hand. "Today's match was definitely a memorable one. Glad I met you today, Shun. Come by often!"

"I'll try." The raven-haired guest shook hands with the brunette but also noticed the angry bluenette in the back. "Make sure you get Runo's permission first."

"Wow, you think that way too?"

"Alice!" While Dan and Runo resumed arguing, Chris and Soon appeared on top of the bridge and waved. "We need to talk!"

Shun didn't understand, but Alice nodded. "Dan, Runo, I'll see you next time. I still have errands to do." The redhead left Dan's residence first and approached the two younger girls. "What happened?"

"We found another one by a bridge near the sakura trees," Soon explained. "Did you bring your notepad?"

"Of course. I always carry it on me."

Shun exited last and approached the three girls. "What are you talking about?"

Chris and Soon kept their mouths shut, but Alice replied, "Maybe you could help us."

"Help you with what?"

The redhead lowered her voice. "There have been multiple mysterious murders lately, and officials won't investigate them. They're not simple as the angry neighborhood feud from the other day."

Shun's eyes widened at the thought. _What did she get herself into? I can't let her risk her life solving unknown murders like that._ "I'll go with you. Maybe I can offer a second opinion."

Alice gasped but smiled. "Thanks, Shun. That would be great."


	4. News Travels Fast

Chris and Soon led the way to a stone bridge near a field of sakura trees. Along the bank of the river that ran beneath was a body wearing a long coat. "The victim is male," the girls explained.

"Doesn't make a difference." Alice approached the body first and reached her hand out but realized her mistake. "I forgot to bring a cloth with me to handle the body since we were at Dan's residence earlier."

"Maybe you can use a fallen branch," Shun suggested. "There are lot of those around, given the sakura trees. Actually, let me do it since the body is really close to the water."

Alice picked up a stray stick and handed it to him. "Be careful."

"Let me know what you want me to look for."

The redhead took out her notepad and recited, "Check the neck, wrists, and ankles for sharp cuts and possible signs of bloodletting."

"Bloodletting?!" Shun followed directions and pulled back various area of clothing with the stick. "I see deep red cuts on the wrists and ankles. This man was wearing a scarf, so I need to—" A gust of wind blew on the man's scarf, making it touched Shun's hand as he felt a tight pain in his chest. "What the—"

 _A man wearing a long coat ran through dark street that the lantern staff forgot to illuminate. He looked back every few seconds and gasped. "Get away from me!"_

 _Someone chased the man but didn't make a sound. The long-coat man reached a closed off alley and screamed. "Help! Someone save—"_

 _Unfortunately, the screaming man was shut up by the assailant laying a gloved hand on the man's mouth. The man still screamed behind the hand on his mouth, his voice gradually decreased in volume. When the time was right, the assailant assaulted the man's neck._

But that was all that Shun saw before returning to reality.

He stared ahead while remaining still, until Alice tapped his shoulder with another branch. "Shun, are you okay? You've been like that for a few minutes."

"I was?" The raven-haired boy blinked and faced Alice, only to feel the tight pain in his chest as well as head. "I...I saw the victim running into a dark alley as the killer attacked him. This murder happened at night."

All three girls gasped in shock. "You **saw** the murder?"

"I don't know what I was seeing." He turned around and saw the victim's scarf gently flying in the wind. "The scarf touched my hand, and I saw that blurry scene. I didn't see the killer's face or the weapon that the killer used, though."

Chris pulled Soon far away and asked, "Can Shun be trusted?"

"Well, he's certainly giving us unexpectedly new information, despite his first encounter with a victim."

Still annoyed by the pain in his chest, Shun fixed his collar and pulled the phoenix pendant out. It glowed faintly, but both he and Alice noticed it. "Kato said that the pendant has healing properties. It seems to be working at the wrong place at the wrong time."

"Could that be why you're seeing a vision of the victim's last moments of life?"

 _So far, this pendant had brought me more trouble than help._ "I hope so. If this works every time, then maybe we I can try it again with previous bodies that you found."

Alice shook her head. "Previous bodies eventually get discovered and taken away. We can only move forward, even if that means more people die."

"Understandable. I—" Now the pain was more severe in Shun's head. "I can't see right..."

Without warning, the redhead placed her hand on the raven-haired boy's forehead, much to his surprise. "Your skin is burning! Chris, Soon, we need to take Shun back. I need to make you medicine."

"Alice, I'm fine. It'll go away."

"I can't let you investigate this with me at the expense of your well-being." She threw the fallen tree branches away and packed everything. "We're going home."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"You found an accordion book while at Infinite Hills? This is most unexpected."

As the interns video-called with Joe to report their progress, Dan expanded the book for Joe to see. "This is a really long and old book, Joe. Like the metal box, there are Ancient Vestroian symbols on the book cover, which translate to 'Medicinal Properties of Rare Plants in Infinity Mountain'."

"Medicinal properties? Sounds unrelated to the archaeological work we have here. By the way, where's Marucho?"

"He's in the hospital again," Fabia replied. "The spies who stole the box followed and fought with us, and Marucho twisted his foot. How are you doing, Joe?"

"Not so great. Another weird murder happened while you all were at Infinite Hills. I need to assist the police again soon. See you all later."

"Bye, Joe." Dan ended the call and flipped through the book. "Surprisingly, the rest of the book is in English, although I don't understand the spelling, grammar, or vocabulary."

"There are dictionary databases to translate Old English into Modern English, if you need them," Ace reminded. "I'm going to eat."

Fabia checked her phone, then left her seat. "Marucho asked me to pick him up. I'll be back."

"Wow. All of you are leaving me." Dan began working on other tasks on his laptop when Runo sent a request to video-chat. "Runo, what now?"

"You never called me back after returning from Infinite Hills, you know."

"Hey, I don't even have time to call my parents each day, so deal with. Besides, the same people who ruined the excavation site followed us to Infinite Hills and assaulted us." The brunette when waved the medicinal book in front of the camera. "They didn't succeed in stealing this, though. I have no idea why a metal box would tell us to go to a mountain just to find this."

"They assaulted you?! Are you all okay?"

"Marucho twisted his ankle while running, but the rest of us are fine." Dan opened the book and rotated it in every direction. "An accordion book is so difficult to handle. What's odd is that the page numbers and actual text are in black, but the prescription numbers are in red."

"That **is** kind of strange. Also, have you found Shun yet?"

"We have **no** idea where he is. I wonder if he's escaping me because I made fun of him for never dating anyone before—"

Suddenly, Runo screamed at the top of her lungs. "I wouldn't be surprised if he's purposely avoiding you after you brought up a stupid topic like that in front of him, Dan!"

Dan fell over his chair and landed on the book. "Runo, look what you did! I would've ruined—"

"I hope you learned your lesson." After hearing no comeback, Runo became worried. "Dan? Are you alive? Please answer me."

"I felt something..." The brunette flipped the pages aside until he reached the back cover. He elbowed it, then elbowed the tile floor. "Something's in this cover. I need a scalpel. Thanks, Runo!"

"The only person you should thank is **Shun** for tolerating every single year of friendship with you."

Meanwhile, Dan gently peeled the lining and saw a folded piece of paper inside. He pulled it out using tweezers and carefully unfolded it. "This is amazing! But why would someone hide this in a medicine book?"

"Is that a map?"

"I think so. I should clip this on the white—"

"Sorry Dan, but my parents are calling. I need to disconnect now."

"But I just discovered this awesome map!" He laid the map on the table and waved goodbye to Runo. "I'll visit Wardington when I have time. I promise. Tell your parents I said hi."

"Thanks, Dan. Talk to you later."

After Dan hung up, his mint-haired colleague returned to the lobby. "Ace, perfect timing! I discovered this map in the medicine book, and it's so cool. Look at all these symbols."

Ace groaned and drank water. "Let's hope this map doesn't lie, either."

The brunette clipped the map to the white board and straightened out the wrinkles. "Whoever wrote this put in much effort. Each degree of latitude and longitude have numbers. Specific landmarks are drawn out. The only problem is that the legend box has two lines in Old English and six incomplete sentences below that. What's also odd is that the latitude numbers are in black and the longitude numbers are in red... kind of like the book itself."

"This has to be a joke. Why use both Ancient Vestroian and Old English together? And what do the two lines say?"

Dan entered the two lines of text into a translator software application. "I hope nothing gets lost in translation..."

 _Six elements have existed since the start of time_

 _To prolong each organism's previous life_

The mint-haired intern shook his head. "Sounds some old medicinal procedures to me."

Fabia returned to the work building with Marucho. "Hi guys. What did we miss?"

"You missed **everything** ," Dan exaggerated. "I found this awesome map hidden in the accordion medicinal book from Infinite Hills. Right now, I'm translating the two lines of text in the legend box into Modern English."

With a crutch under one arm, Marucho approached the map and pushed his glasses. "Six elements? Previous life? Wait...this can't be!"

"What is it?" the others wondered.

"I have this poem at home!"

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Shun woke up to the sunlight shining through, still drowsy but with no headache anymore. _Must've been Alice's medicine that made my headache go away at the expense of oversleeping._ After washing up, he heard the front doors open. "Alice?"

"Shun, you're awake! Did my medicine work?"

"It did, but I'm still kind of drowsy. Maybe the dose was too strong. What's with the rush?"

"At least this medicine isn't fatal." Alice set the box of herbs on the kitchen counter and grabbed some baskets. "I need to go to the street market to buy food. Do you want to come? Maybe you'll find something that will suit your tastes."

"Sure. I can carry your baskets for you."

"That would be great."

The street market consisted of vendors who grew and raised their own produce to sell. People set up tables and stand along the street or in front of their residences. _So it's this kind of market,_ Shun realized. _Just like the ones in Mom's hometown._ "How often do you come here?"

"I usually come here every other day, but sometimes the clinic gets very busy and prevents me from leaving early."

"Have you considered growing your own plants at home?"

"We have some fruit trees and herb shrubs at home, but they don't grow enough in time to fulfill all our basic needs. What's the market like at where you're from, Shun?"

"Not exactly like this, but you can still find street markets in near-rural areas." The more he tried to answer Alice's questions about where he came from, the more he missed that place. _Will I ever return to present day?_

"Shun, have you thought about how you'll return home?"

"Are you trying to get rid of me?"

"Of course not!" Alice gagged and looked away. "You're a great help to Grandfather and me, Shun. But what about your family and friends? Is there a way to let them know you're here? A letter would work."

"Alice, relax. I know you didn't mean that. My only lead was Infinity Mountain, but Kato's weren't very helpful. Sending a letter won't work, either. Long story short—none of you would know how to reach where I'm from."

"Oh well. I'll by some produce in the meantime."

As Alice approached each stall to buy food, Shun felt someone following behind them. _Somebody's watching us, but I don't know from where._ In a split second, a patch of mint green flew by, but Shun lost track in the sea of people. _The stalker is here somewhere. I can still feel it._

The redhead came back and tapped Shun's shoulder. "You look disoriented."

"I swear, someone was following us."

"Maybe you're not used to crowded places. By the way, the candy stands are down the block. You **have** to try some." After walking a few steps ahead, a horse-drawn carriage blocked the street. "Great. Now I need to walk around—wait! I recognize the emblem on the carriage window..."

Shun felt a guest of wind blow by. "Alice, behind you!"

"Say what?"

"Surprise!"

Alice screamed as Shun stood in front to protect her. _This person looks like Ace, but is probably another lookalike._ "Who are you?"

A mint-haired boy wearing a long purple coat snapped his fingers. "So much for surprising Alice. Who are **you**?"

The redhead leaned over and saw the person who surprised her. "Ace! You're back in Vestroia!"

 _ **His**_ _name is also Ace,_ Shun thought. "At least you know him, Alice."

"Ace, this is Shun Kazami. He's helping Grandfather and I with the clinic. Shun, this is Cassius Griffin. Everyone calls him 'Ace' instead. He used to be my neighbor until he began commuting as a trade merchant."

"Cassius?" Shun asked. _This isn't like the Ace that I know at all._ "Nice to meet you, **Ace**."

"Nice to meet you too, Shun. Alice, stop telling everyone that my birth name is Cassius. Not even my merchant license lists 'Cassius' as my first name."

"Is that even legal?" Alice wondered.

"It's legal in Vestal." A young woman with orange spiky hair wearing a brown dress and white coat walked over. "Hello there. I'm Mirabelle Clayton, Ace's fiancée. Call me Mira."

 _Even Mira makes an appearance. Although, none of us have seen her since...I don't even remember._ "Hi Mira. I'm Shun."

"I'm Alice!" Alice and Mira greeted each other warmly. "Are you from Vestal? What brings you to Vestroia? Ace, you got engaged very quickly."

"Don't mention it," Ace sighed.

Mira answered, "Ace said he hasn't been here in a long time, so he came back with other merchants that were coming this way. I have extended family here, so I tagged along. We'll be in Vestroia for a few days."

"All this talk makes me hungry," the mint-haired merchant complained. "Alice, take us to the best restaurant that you know here."

"All right, but you're paying," the redhead giggled.

The four of them agreed to eat noodles at a popular restaurant. While eating, Ace suddenly asked, "Did you hear about the recent bizarre murders?"

Mira nearly choked on her soup. "Ace! Don't talk about this stuff when eating!"

"It just popped up in my head! I don't want to forget it later."

Shun finished his bite of food and replied, "Bizarre murders? Alice and I are—"

"-aware of that too." Alice interrupted, followed by kicking Shun on his shin. "However, nobody knows much because no one is investigating this."

The raven-haired youth exchanged confused glances with the herbalist trainee as Ace continued talking. "That's absurd. Why **wouldn't** you investigate these murders? The public needs to know so we can all find the killer soon and prevent more unfortunate events."

"Yet, the officials investigate minor disputes and easier cases." Alice sighed.

After they finished eating and paying the bill, the quartet exited the restaurant and greeted each other goodbye. "It was nice seeing Alice again, as well as meeting Shun. Mira and I will be here for a few days, so stop by the warehouse anytime. I'll drop off some goods at your house when I have time, Alice."

"Thanks Ace! Bye Mira! See you two next time!"

Once Ace and Mira walked faraway enough, Shun dragged Alice to the side and asked discretely, "Why didn't you let me tell them that we're trying to solve the bizarre murders?"

Alice pulled her hand away gently. "I don't want too many people to know. Chris, Soon, and I have been finding bodies for a while now, but we still have no leads."

"Ace's job requires him to travel and communicate. Maybe he can ask people around for help."

"Shun, you don't get it. Murder cases scare trade merchants away. It's bad for business."

"But people are **dying**."

"Shun, just keep this a secret for now. Not even Grandfather knows that I'm doing this."

 _Why do you want to keep everything for yourself?_ "Alright. I won't say a word."

"Thanks, Shun. By the way, we haven't look at the candy stands yet."

Shun felt a gust of wind as Alice ran down the street first. He turned around and watched her cross the road. _You're a difficult person to understand, Alice._


	5. Connections Go Deep

Alice stared at the flyers that government officials posted on the market square's bulletin board. Shun finally caught up to her through the sea of people and asked, "What are you looking at?"

"The royal palace will be holding examinations for various positions and licenses," the redhead pointed. "Palace and civilian herbalist exams are on the list."

"I know you want to obtain an official license to become a civilian herbalist," Shun recalled. "Here's your chance."

"You still remember."

"I do. What's wrong with that?"

"I swear told that to you a long time ago. I thought you'd forget."

"Why would I? The herbalist exam is important to you, and you never stop talking or thinking about it."

"How would you know that I always think about it?"

"Just guessing."

"I thought so. Be right back." Alice stepped forward and looked closer at the entire bulletin board. "Look at the dates. The application isn't due until at least month away. Even the earliest exam date is at least **two** months away, and it's not for any of the herbalist exams. Who came up with this schedule?"

"Look on the bright side. You have at least two months to study."

"I know, but I want to get it over with."

The redhead grabbed an application form and strolled down the street market with Shun. "Alice, how come you don't want to be a palace herbalist? I'm sure the pay is better than being a civilian herbalist."

"The exam for palace positions are always more difficult than for the civilian positions. Besides, I don't want to get involved in unnecessary drama in the palace. People kill each other over misunderstandings."

"Excuse me?!"

"Not directly, of course! People in the palace like to form fake alliances and talk obscurely behind each other's backs. I would rather earn my license and work near home, where I can be with Grandfather and all the neighbors that I've known for life. Then there's Prince Hydron..."

"Who's that?"

"Nobody worth liking. King Zenoheld's health hasn't improved, and Prince Hydron is already taking over most administrative affairs. He's likely to be crown prince, but who knows what will happen?"

"Does everyone hate Prince Hydron?"

"Depends on who you ask. We commoners don't exactly like what he's doing, but King Zenoheld wasn't any better, either."

"I can't imagine what living under a monarchy is like."

Alice stopped walking and turned around. "You mean there's another form of government other than a monarchy?"

"Of course. It depends on where you're talking about. I **would** like to take you to where I'm from, but it's too far away."

"I can wait."

Shun smiled but shook his head. "You can't. I already know that."

"How do you for certain—"

"Because—"

Chris and Soon ran by and reported, "We need to talk."

"Another one found?" the redhead asked silently. The two younger girls nodded. "Lead the way."

Alice's friends led the way to an empty park in one of the wealthier and neater districts of Vestroia. Soon walked ahead first and pointed to a female body lying beneath some shrubs. "When I checked her pulse, her hands were still warm. She was killed very recently."

"At least there's no rain to ruin the body like **that** one time," Chris commented.

Shun pulled on Alice's sleeve and whispered, "How do they know where to find these bodies? Can **they** be trusted?"

"Shun, you can trust them. Chris and Soon come from better backgrounds than me, so they have more free time to go everywhere and find clues. Do you still want to look at the body?"

"Why are you talking to me like that?"

"Last time, you nearly passed out because of the vision you saw. I'm scared that it will hurt your health in the future."

"I'll be fine...but I don't have a cloth to use, so I need another twig." The raven-haired youth eventually found one and observed the victim's wounds with Chris and Soon. "The cuts on her body are rather shallow. Does that mean anything to you?"

"Her blood vessels are closer to the surface of her skin," Alice suggested. "I think that's true for most females."

"Is this the first female victim you've seen?"

"No, but male victims are more common than female victims. I forgot to take note of how deep the cuts were on previous bodies..."

"Alice, it's not your fault. I'm just giving a second opinion. Aside from that, noticing even the smallest details will definitely help when studying for the herbalist exam."

"You're going to participate in the exams, Alice?!" the other girls gasped.

"All of you, stop it! I just saw the news today and grabbed an application, but there's more that I need to consider. Meanwhile, let's focus on this body. I should take more detailed notes."

"You decided to do that after I gave you a study tip?" Alice became speechless, and Shun gently touched the woman's lace scarf. "I'm seeing things again..."

 _A woman walked around in a dark room. The windows were barely open, and nobody lit up candles of any sort. She stumbled on a raised step in the room, which she didn't notice because the wooden floor was just as dark as the room. The woman reached her hands out to feel her surroundings. "You said you'd meet me here. I can't see anything."_

 _No one answered, so she assumed that no one was around. Suddenly, someone tapped her shoulder. "You scared me! I thought you said to meet—"_

 _A gloved hand shut her up with a piece of fabric. She screamed but nobody heard her. The assailant tightened the grip on the woman's mouth until she nearly passed out. The last thing she saw was a bright flash of light coming from the assailant's mouth. "Please... don't kill me..."_

Shun vision stopped just when the assailant was about to kill the woman. "This body was moved. I saw her about to die in a dark enclosed room, **not** an open park like this."

"Not even an open park in the dark with no lights?" Chris asked.

"Not even. Somebody was supposed to meet with her in this questionable room. You don't meet someone in a closed room that's not lit or bright at all. Unfortunately, I don't know the places here well enough to know **where** she was—"

Disorientation overcame the raven-haired boy as the two younger girls caught him. Alice placed her hand on his forehead as usual. "You're heating up again. We need to go home."

"Whatever medicine you cooked for me last time made me oversleep, Alice. I'm not risking it."

"Relax, Shun. I know how to adjust the dose now. Chris, Soon, I hope you don't mind carrying him back to my house for me."

"Of course not!" the redhead's friends cheered.

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Dan, Ace, and Fabia waited in the living room as Marucho scurried downstairs with an old wooden box in his hand. "After my parents retired, they left me this box of items and told me to keep it close. I had no idea that it would be related to the metal treasure box."

"Wait. You're saying that this is a family secret?" Dan clarified. "That's so cool! I wish I had a family secret."

"Dan, this is no ordinary secret. My parents made me swear to never tell outside and to only pass this on to my future children. I'm taking a huge risk right now because the map you found has a portion of the poem that I memorized. Here it goes."

 _Six elements have existed since the start of time_

 _To prolong each organism's previous life_

 _Starting with daybreak welcoming the morning dew_

 _As rays of sunlight produce a cheerful hue_

Ace thought deeply about what Marucho just said. "The new lines of text don't sound as medicinal as the previous ones. In fact, they sound cheesy. Based on the empty space in the legend box, there should be more lines in the poem."

"Sorry, Ace. That's all that my parents told me to memorize."

"Maybe the people who kept this secret split the poem up to prevent it from being exposed all at once." Fabia pointed to a blue ring in Marucho's box. "What's that?"

Unlike typical metallic jewelry, the ring that Marucho took out had a band made of brown jade with a blue ornament. "Now that I look at this, it looks like another Ancient Vestroian symbol."

Dan took a picture of the ring decoration and ran it through translation software. "It just means 'water'. Nothing special."

"Water **is** implicitly mentioned in the poem." Ace noted. "The line after that seems to refer to light."

"Speaking of light..." Dan flipped through the medicinal book and pointed his finger at one page. "There aren't many prescriptions in the book to begin with, but this is the only one that mentioned requiring light for an eye infection treatment. I wonder if the color-coded numbers mean anything. Reminds me of the map that you told us to bring—"

Suddenly, Marucho's phone rang. "Hello Joe. What's up?"

"Marucho, where's Dan? He's not answering his phone."

After the short blond put his phone on speakers, Dan replied, "I probably muted my phone by accident. We're all at Marucho's house. What's up?"

"You all need to come back. There was another murder near another worksite, and the metal artifact box is missing from the work building."

"What?!" screamed the four interns. "We'll come back now!"

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Back in the Gehabich residence, Alice halved the amount of medicinal ingredient but added the same amount of water. As prepared Shun's medicine and other patients' prescriptions, the raven-haired boy left his room and leaned against the first-floor kitchen door. "You should work on the other prescriptions first. I can wait."

"No worries, Shun. I know how to prioritize. Shouldn't you be resting? You can't even stand."

"I'm fine. I go through headaches every day."

Alice stopped stirring a pot. "What do you mean?"

"Just my typical daily life with friends and family. Nothing's perfect, you know."

"But you still miss them."

Shun sighed and looked away. "I do. They don't know that I'm here, and it's a struggle to not know anyone."

"You know me."

"You're different."

"How so?"

"Most of the friends I have today grew up or went to school with me since early on. They all say that I don't make new friends easily, but I just want to focus on what's important."

"That doesn't sound completely true." She poured a poured a bowl of headache medicine and handed it to Shun. "This won't be as bad at last time."

"If you say so."

As Shun consumed his medicine, a sharp voice called from outside. "Alice! You have mail!"

"That sounds like Marucho." Alice wiped her hands and ran to the front door as Shun followed. "Someone personally wrote a letter to me?"

"Yes! It's very urgent, too!" The short blond boy handed a bulky envelope from his messenger bag to Alice. "Who's the person behind you?"

"Let me introduce you guys to each other. Marucho, this is Shun Kazami. He's helping us with the clinic for a few days. Shun, this is Choubi Maruyama, our neighborhood mailman. Everyone calls him Marucho."

Shun, having accustomed to meeting new people who share similar names as people he knew from the present, simply waved his hand. "Nice to meet you."

"As I was saying..." The blond pointed to the front side of the envelope in Alice's hands. "I find it odd that someone would request urgent delivery, but not write their address down. By the way, did you see the announcement today regarding exams, Alice?"

"I did. I'm planning on taking the civilian herbalist exam so I can legally practice like my grandfather. What are you planning on taking?"

"I'm quitting this mail delivery soon because I plan on taking the palace scholar exam. Anyway, I need to deliver more mail. See you next time, and good luck!"

Alice returned to the living room and opened the envelope. A small, dense piece of metal fell out. "I've seen this before..."

"Alice, what exactly is the 'palace scholar exam'?" Shun asked.

"I believe that's the exam to admit and train people into scholars to keep records of everything that happens in Vestroia. Only male applicants are accepted, but I still think it's overrated." The redhead then pulled out a folded piece of paper from the envelope and read it. "No wonder the sender was so mysterious..."

The raven-haired boy sat down and observed the piece of metal. It was colored gold and in the shape of a rectangle, with a design of some flowering plant in the middle. On the top was a small hole with a red tassel. "Isn't it unsafe to send valuables in the mail?"

"Which is **why** she requested urgent delivery."

"Who is 'she'?"

Alice showed the letter to Shun. "Princess Fabia from Neathia invited me to her coming-of-age ceremony."

"Seriously?! Is that her full name?"

"Her given name is Faviola, but she hates that so much. She also said that I need to bring a guest, which is what this gold token is—"

"Stop. How have you personally met the princess of another country when you don't even know about the prince of your own country? And 'bring a guest'? What is she thinking?! That's not safe either!"

"Shun, let me explain. A long time ago, Grandfather and other royal doctors were dispatched to Neathia to cure some weird disease. My parents passed away already, so King Zenoheld permitted me to travel with Grandfather under extremely careful supervision. Princess Fabia also contracted the disease. At first, she refused to be seen, but then we met and became friends, so she opened up to treatment. I came up with her nickname of 'Fabia' because 'Faviola' was too difficult for me to pronounce back then. I don't know why she wants me to bring a guest from here to the banquet. It makes no sense."

"Then what's this token for?"

"That token is for whomever I'll be bringing over. Fabia gave me a special entry token from a long time ago, so I'll use that." After a long silence from staring at Fabia's token, the redhead asked, "Do you want to go with me?"

"Why me? Who will stay to fill prescriptions then?"

"I'll make arrangements with Grandfather. He'll understand."

"I still don't have a good feeling about this, Alice."

"But it wouldn't hurt to meet new people, right? Neathia isn't too far from here. You could use a break."

Shun immediately looked up. "A break from **what**?"

"You still look upset about being unable to find a way home. Since I can't help you, I thought maybe bringing you to Princess Fabia's banquet would make you feel better."

Suddenly, he sat closer to her. "What makes you think will work?"

"Because..." Alice didn't even have time to react after seeing Shun sit so close to her while he stared into her eyes, demanding an answer. Her lips parted but said nothing as her heart raced. Eventually, she felt a burning blush spread on her face and packed up the contents of the envelope. "I'll find Grandfather right now."

"I didn't even agree to your request yet!"

"You won't reject anyway!"

The redhead ran down a hallway as Shun breathed heavily. _How would she know that I wouldn't say no? Either way, I need to see how impressive this Princess Fabia is to make Alice fulfill the weirdest requests._


	6. Pushing Limits

The border patrol guards analyzed the letter, the golden token, and Alice's personal identification token. "They're all legitimate. You two may pass."

"Thank you!" Alice retrieved her items and called Shun over. "You've never been here either, right?"

"I haven't really been anywhere, actually. When was the last time you were here?"

"I haven't been here in years, either. Usually, Neathia's royal family visits Vestroia, and Fabia sometimes personally visits me. We can explore the streets here in the meantime. I told you that Neathia wasn't too far away from Vestroia. You still insisted on leaving the house early when I know more than you do."

"At least that gives us time to walk around together."

 _He's been rather weird lately, and I can't explain it._ Alice walked further but then turned around. "Shun, did you accept my request to come to Fabia's banquet because I said that you wouldn't reject? Or because you already wanted to come?"

"Is there a difference?"

"Answer me."

They stared into each other's eyes again, this time with Alice sternly demanding an answer. "When you said that I could use a break from thinking about how to go home, I just realized that you could use a break from preparing medicine as well. You already asked me to go with you, and taking a break together sounded better than being alone."

"That's it?"

"Simple as—" Again, Shun noticed someone staring at them suspiciously from a few meters behind Alice. _Not another stalker._ "There's someone behind—"

"Alice!" Before the warning went through, a girl about Alice's height with navy-blue hair jumped forward and hugged the redhead from behind. "You're here early!"

"Fabia!" After the said princess let go, Alice turned around and observed Fabia's simple casual clothes. "You're in civilian attire! What are you doing here?"

"Serena and everyone else are setting up for the ceremony, so I came out here instead." She pointed to Shun, who stared back unnervingly. "You **did** bring a guest! Who is he?"

"Fabia, this is Shun Kazami. He's helping at Grandfather's clinic. Shun, this is Princess Fabia. Don't ever call her Faviola."

After Shun waved the princess hello, Fabia tapped Alice's shoulder and asked, "Did you **have** to tell him about my full given name?"

"Anyone who doesn't know your real name would be very confused when they hear it said so many times at the ceremony."

"Good point there... There's still a lot of time left before the ceremony starts. We can walk and talk for now."

Fabia dragged Alice forward, leaving Shun behind. _What's the point of asking Alice to bring a guest if Fabia herself will only talk to Alice?_

"Fabia, slow down." Alice urged. "You need to explain why you wanted me to bring a guest to the banquet. Isn't inviting only me enough?"

"Actually, Serena also invited Gundalia's Prince Ren over..."

"He's coming?! But that has nothing to do with me bringing a guest!"

"Alice, I really want you at my coming-of-age ceremony because we've been friends for so long, but Serena has plans for my engagement to Ren, so she wants me to interact with him more during the banquet. I didn't want you to feel left out."

"But still, what if I unknowingly brought someone who had bad intentions? I could also talk to the servants. They deserve attention, too."

"I think you'd know better than to bring someone that harbored ill will. Besides, Shun's not **that** bad."

Alice blinked several times. "What does that mean?"

"I know you could've brought Chris or Soon, yet you brought him. What's the reasoning behind that?"

"Fabia, you only gave me **one** guest pass. If I chose one of the girls, then the other will get mad." The redhead looked back and saw Shun admiring the different products that Neathian vendors had to offer. "Everyone else I know has schedule conflicts."

"Right..." Fabia turned around and screamed. "Shun, hurry up! We'll be late for the banquet!"

"Already?" he screamed as he reluctantly left a store front. "All of you are so inconsistent with time."

Inside the Neathian Palace, tables lined close to the walls as guest sat all around. Despite being a royal coming-of-age ceremony, there weren't that many guests, but the atmosphere was still very festive. Fabia led Alice and Shun to a seat, then pointed to a silver-haired youth at a distant table. "Serena wasn't kidding when she said she invited Ren over."

Shun took a seat and whispered, "Who's Ren?"

"That's Prince Renard from Gundalia, which isn't too far away from Neathia. I've been to Gundalia with Grandfather too, but I've only seen Ren once or twice because he was always out training or hunting. He might not even remember me."

"That's understandable." The raven-haired boy watched the Neathian princess talk with the Gundalian prince. "I think Fabia just called him over to our table..."

The princess stood up introduced everyone. "Alice, this is Ren. I know you definitely remember him. Ren, this is Alice, Dr. Michael's granddaughter."

"Long time no see, Miss Alice. You look no different than when I first met you years ago." He kneeled and kiss the back of Alice's hand gently before glancing at Shun. "And you are?"

"Shun Kazami. Just an assistant at Dr. Michael's clinic."

"Nice to meet you, Shun. Care to engage in a duel later?"

The girls were confused, but Shun defended himself immediately. "What makes you think that?"

"I apologize for the rash request. In Gundalia, we heavily value physical skill and combat. I have a bad habit of asking everyone that."

The girls sighed in relief, and the raven-haired youth waved his hand. "It's fine. It's just that one of Alice's other friends recently joined the army, and the first thing he did after meeting me was challenging me to a swordfight, which **I** won. I thought I was close to repeating that experience again." To the side, Alice covered her mouth but laughed uncontrollably at the thought of Dan. "What are you laughing about? You were the one who insisted that I apply medicinal ointment on nonexistent wounds."

"Hmmm..." Fabia and Ren eyed Alice suspiciously.

The redhead stopped laughing and argued, "So? You still applied the ointment on your hands anyway."

"Ummm..." The prince and princess now eyed Shun suspiciously. "Was this organized or what?"

"Faviola! Please come over here now!"

Fabia groaned and stood up. "Sorry, guys. My sister needs me over now. I'll talk to you all later."

"I'll return to my original seat," greeted Ren before leaving.

Alice tasted some food and noted, "I'm not sure why Queen Serena wants Fabia to marry Ren. This is a rather bizarre idea."

"As far as I'm concerned, something like this might to for maintaining peace and friendliness between two countries," Shun replied.

After the main festivities ended, Fabia escorted Shun and Alice outside. "Thank you so much for coming today! I'll make sure to visit Vestroia more often."

"No worries, Fabia," Alice replied. "Thank you for being my friend for all these—"

A Neathian soldier rushed to the banquet hall and bowed before Queen Serena nearby. "Prince Hydron of Vestroia has arrived outside and requests to deliver a present."

"A present? For Faviola?" Serena eyed her younger sister, who shrugged in response. "Bring it over."

Fabia whispered to her guests, "I think will Serena make me stay behind. I'll lead you to the side door so that you don't encounter Hydron on the way out. I also prepared a carriage to take you home, too."

As they left palace from the side exits, Shun noticed a fancy carriage resting outside the Neathian palace gates. One soldier delivered a box inside and exited a few minutes later. A person inside the carriage lifted the window curtain and spoke to the soldier. " **That's** Prince Hydron?"

Alice turned to face where Shun was looking. "Unfortunately, yes. I'm not surprised that Queen Serena didn't invite him, but I **am** surprised that Prince Hydron would just come here with a present. It's not like he's the one who will get married to Fabia."

"Anyway, enough of that. When do you think your big day will come?"

"Shun, I'm older than Fabia and already had a simple party to celebrate—"

"That's not what I meant."

It took a while for the redhead to realize what the raven-haired boy was talking about, in which she gagged and looked away. "Why do you even ask?"

"I assume you're Dr. Michael's only grandchild, so you two must be very concerned about this matter."

"Well...I'm personally not thinking about it right now, especially since the palace is offering the herbalist exam. Grandfather doesn't talk about that with me either. Anyway, I'll sleep now. Wake me up when we get home, okay?"

"I will." Shun watched Alice take her coat off and use it as a blanket. He looked outside the window and sighed. _Is there really nothing that I can do?_

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

The interns paced around in the work building lobby as the police spoke with Joe. "Our work is done here, Professor Brown. We hope you will cooperate with us later on."

"I will. Thank you." Joe pulled a few strands of his sandy blond hair and approached the interns. "Whoever stole the metal box are professionals. They probably picked the safe lock using a stethoscope and left no traces."

"Was anything else stolen?" Dan asked.

"No, only the box is missing. The only other important discovery aside from the box is the casket, which other colleagues and I will work on for now. Are you still solving the mystery of the box?"

"We're still solving it, but this new urgent matter made us very disorganized." The brunette took out the medicine book and spread the map on the table. "There's another symbol in this map. The translator software says it means 'treasure box'."

"Treasure box? As in **the** metal box?" Joe photographed the map using giant standing cameras. On the laptop, he superimposed a modern-day map over the ancient map. "Assuming that geography hasn't changed, the spot where the symbol is could refer to the archaeological site that we worked on earlier. You said there were special coordinates?"

"There are." Dan flipped to the correct page and recited the numbers of the page and prescription. "What does that get you?"

Everyone watched Joe use paint software to digitally mark the location. "Here you go."

"Wait. This place looks familiar..." The brunette clicked the image of the modern-day map. "Hey! That's Runo's parents' hometown!"

"Uh..." the others gagged. "Is this accurate?"

"I'm positive. She never stopped blabbing about it to me. Should we go there then?"

The other three interns exchanged glasses, but the lead archaeologist shook his head. "I personally can't go. The police expect me to stay to assist **their** investigation. Also, I still have to work on the casket and identify other items."

"I see what you mean. Runo's parents' hometown is far from Bayview as well. We should go there tomorrow at earliest. Excuse me for a moment." Dan entered a private meeting room, locked the door, and dialed a number. "Runo, where are you?"

"I'm at my parents' old house for my grandmother's birthday. Why are you calling me so suddenly?"

 _She's there already?! This is too much of a coincidence._ "Uh...how long are you staying there?"

"I'm not sure. It depends on what my other relatives are doing. Dan, answer my question."

"I was wondering if I could come over—"

" **You**? Come to **my** parents' hometown? Get real! I don't see you acting this seriously every day."

"Please, Runo. This is an urgent matter. I need to see you."

"That's a pathetic excuse."

"Just give me directions on how to drive from Bayview to where you are."

"Are you serious? What—" A fuzzy sound interrupted the call. "I'm in the hills right now, so service is bad. What else do you want?"

"I need to leave tomorrow morning."

"All right. I'll message you the directions when there's better service. Bye Dan."

"Bye Runo. I miss—" The bluenette hung up before Dan could finish his sentence. _That was rude._ He exited the meeting room and declared to all, "We're going to Runo's parents' hometown tomorrow morning, so don't be late!"

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Alice and Marucho submitted their applications to a wooden box that was recently installed near the bulletin board. "Alice, let's go. What are you looking at?"

"If you need to deliver mail, then go ahead. There's an open spot for a 'land surveyor' position."

"I've never heard of that job before. Is it new?"

"It is, but the description doesn't say why the palace officials decided to create this new category. The requirements are very strict and challenging. It appears that only one person will be considered for this position, as opposed to admitting many people."

"I doubt anyone will try out for a confusing, obscure, and ridiculously weird job like this." Despite the blond's opposition, the redhead still grabbed an application form for that position. "What are you doing, Alice? I thought you were only considering the herbalist exam."

"This isn't for me. It's for someone else. Anyway, let's go. Even if the formal examinations begin in a little over a month, we need to study as soon as possible."

Marucho headed toward the post office, while Alice return home. Shun was tying twine around various packages of prescriptions, "Alice, you're back early. How did submitting the applications go?"

"It was simple. Somebody installed a wooden box next to the bulletin board for us to turn our applications into. Speaking of applications..." The redhead took out the extra application that she picked up earlier, and the raven-haired youth eyed it suspiciously. "A new position opened up today. The bulletin board didn't say what a land surveyor does, but I brought this back for you in case you're interested."

 _I know what a land surveyor does in present day, but what is there to survey here?_ "No thanks. There's no point in it anyway."

"Shun, please think about it. Apparently, there's much travelling involved with this position, which I thought might help you with navigating your way around in hopes of going home. I know Grandfather taught you how to organize prescriptions, but you can't just stay at home all day and do only that."

 _I can't tell if she's trying to get rid of me, or if she really cares about me personal well-being._ "Fine. I'll think about it. It's weird that a new position pops out of nowhere after the initial announcement from a few weeks ago."

"Sounds great!" By surprise, Alice immediately hugged Shun, who stopped his work at hand as he tried to understand what was happening. His heart raced until the redhead finally let go. "I should start studying for the herbalist exams, but there will always be so many prescriptions to package..."

Shun had an idea. "Since I said I'll consider the land surveyor position, can you teach me how to fill out prescriptions then?"

"Why?"

"So you can study for the exam without stressing over work at home."

Alice smiled and took a seat next to Shun, who tensed up again. "You just said that you'll consider the land surveyor position, which means you need to study too. I don't want to overwhelm you with so much new information, Shun. But, I can teach you the basics of treating simple problems, such as common cold, indigestion, most pain, and so on."

"Whatever makes you happy." The raven-haired youth tied the twine tightly and set the prescription package aside before taking a good look at the application. "Aside from Runo, all of you seem to have strong ambitions about what to do in life. Dan's in the army already, Marucho wants to become a palace scholar, and you want to become an herbalist—"

" **Civilian** herbalist. I don't want to enter the palace."

"Why not? I'm sure the pay would be much better than working here."

"Not everything is about money, Shun. The palace is a complicated and dangerous place. Grandfather told me all about it. Nevertheless, I'm still a girl, and not everyone takes us seriously. As a civilian herbalist, I can give back to the community that supported me when I grew up. I know my limits."

Shun sighed at the thought of that and nodded. "Maybe you're right. By the way, I don't have an official identification paper established and verified by Vestroian officials. What do I do?"

"Um..." The redhead read the application and snapped her fingers. "I hope I can ask Grandfather to make you—"

"Are you serious?! That's forgery!"

"Relax, Shun." She held Shun by his shoulders and pushed him back to his seat. "Grandfather used to work in that department. I'm sure there's **something** that he can do. Be right back."

The raven-haired youth was appalled. _She did not just say that. They can't make a fake ID for me, can they?_ He thought back about everything else that Alice did for him. _What am I to you, Alice? Why put in all this effort to help me?_


	7. Suspicious Coincidences

_I can't believe they made me a Vestroian identification paper just like that..._

Shun sat on a tall tree branch with a sketchbook in hand as he drew details of the landscape around him. However, he ripped the page out and crumpled it, tossing the wad of paper down. _My sketchbook is near empty already?_ Shun looked over and counted at least ten pieces of paper on the grass near the tree.

He was about to start another drawing, but couldn't bring out his thoughts onto paper. _Why am I even pursuing something that I don't like?_ The raven-haired youth flipped the sketchbook over and saw Alice's name on the back. _That's right. I promised Alice after she promised to teach me—never mind._

Suddenly, heavy breathing noises interrupted his thoughts. A girl with dark navy hair tied in a ponytail wiped her forehead before reading a crudely drawn map. "I'm lost... **again**."

"Can I help you?" Shun jumped down from the tree and approached the girl. _Why does she look so familiar?_ "I'm Shun, by the way."

"I'm Chan. Shun, do you know where this cliff is located at?" The navy-haired pointed to a location on the map. "That's where my friend lives. I'm not from here."

 _Technically, I'm not from here either._ "I **think** I know what you're talking about." Shun picked up all the pieces of paper that he threw away earlier. "There's a shortcut from here to the cliff, but I've never tried it myself, so here goes nothing."

To Shun's surprise, his shortcut successfully led to the cliff where Chan's friend supposedly lived. The navy-haired girl positioned a sundial on the ground to check the time. "I came here faster than last time!"

"You've been here before? I'm not from here either, so I'm surprised that shortcut worked."

"I had no idea that you're not a local! You must be lucky that the shortcut you memorized didn't change. I haven't been here in a long time, and compared to today, the landscape has changed very much." There were a few houses ahead, so Chan randomly screamed, "Joe! Which house are you in?!"

Shun smacked his forehead. _This person is more lost than me..._

After a long silence, someone from one house opened the front door. "Good morning. Are you—Shun?!"

"Alice?!"

Now Chan was confused. "Do you know each other? Where's Joe?"

Ignoring Shun's presence, Alice replied, "This is Joe's residence. His asthma symptoms worsened yesterday, so I'm personally delivering his medicine to his house today. You're Chan, right? Come in." After Chan went inside, the redhead asked Shun, "What are you doing here?"

"I was supposed to being drawing maps, until I saw Chan wandering around."

Inside the house, a sandy-blond boy stood up and approached the others. "Chan, I'm glad to see you. You remembered your way here."

"You can thank Shun for leading the way. I heard your asthma came back. Is it still not under control?"

The redhead gathered everyone over to the living room. "We haven't formally met yet. I'm Alice. My grandfather owns the clinic that Joe typically sees for this asthma. This is Shun, an assistant at the clinic."

Joe introduced himself and Chan next. "Nice to meet you, Shun. I'm Joshua Browning, but call me Joe. Alice's grandfather has been treating asthma ever since I moved here. This is Chanjuan Li, a friend from my hometown. Speaking of hometown, what brings you here to Vestroia's capital city?"

"Hi everyone. Just call me Chan. Joe, I came here so urgently because a series of wildfires destroyed most the land that we and other neighbors owned."

"Wildfires in the summer? What about the crops?"

"Fortunately, we harvested most fields already, but others weren't so lucky. Prince Hydron isn't helping us as much as expected since he supposedly want to buy **all** that land for other purposes."

"Hydron **again**?" Shun clicked his tongue. "His personality is one thing, but abandoning his subjects? Why would he want to buy the land?"

"Our hometown has the most fertile land in all of Vestroia, so I guess he wants to have the land for himself instead of letting civilians own it. Nobody is investigating how the fire started. That's enough to cause suspicion."

"Chan, you didn't have to walk all the way here to find me," Joe insisted. "You could've written a letter, if you're busy."

"Some things are better said in person, Joe. Anyway, I left the house at sunrise, so I should go home now."

"Already? You won't stay for lunch or dinner?"

"I can't. The fire was too massive. My parents need my help with cleaning up." The navy-haired girl stood up first and stepped outside. "It was nice seeing you again, Joe. Alice, Shun—it was nice meeting you two as well. I know my way home from here."

"Bye Chan!" After the other three waved the guest goodbye, Alice told Joe, "I should go home as well. Grandfather might have more prescriptions waiting for me."

"I understand. Shun, it was nice meeting you today. Alice, I'll be fine from here."

"All right. See you next time!" After leaving Joe's house, the redhead sighed and rubbed her forehead. "Prince Hydron is worse than I thought."

"Tell me about it," Shun sympathized. In the distance, he saw two familiar faces. "How do Chris and Soon know to find us here?"

"I told them this morning that I would be Joe's house. What's going on, you two?"

Soon answered first. "We found another body, Alice. And what a coincidence, Shun's here too. Come on."

Inside a forest near the cliffs was another dead body. The victim was male, wearing a long trench coat. Shun approached the body and lifted areas of clothing to identify wounds. "Same cause of death as usual." He touched the victim's hand, but screamed quickly. "Hydron!"

"Where?!" the girls shrieked.

The raven-haired youth waved his hands. "He's nowhere here. I saw him and other unknown people in my vision."

"Are you sure it was Hydron?" Alice asked. "What about the other people?"

"I saw the exact same person who arrived uninvited and late with a present to Princess Fabia's banquet, but I've never seen the other people before. They were talking to each other in some unknown place—" Shun gasped and held his forehead. "It hurts...again."

"Hydron may do a lot of weird things, but being involved with these murders may be too much," Chris commented as a chill went down her spine. "Or, maybe this is why **no one** is investigating these murders."

The redhead explained Chan's situation back home with her friends. "Put all that together, and everything makes sense now, but we still don't know why these people died, or why bloodletting is necessary. Also, Shun doesn't feel well. I should take him home now."

After Chris and Soon left first, Alice offered to carry Shun's belongings. "How much work did you get done?"

"Not much."

"The sketchbook is thinner than when I gave it to you last night."

"I ended up throwing most of the papers away because I didn't draw correctly. Alice, I appreciate all that you're doing for me, but I don't think this is the way to go."

"You wouldn't have said yes if you knew you couldn't do it."

"I agreed because you asked."

Alice turned around at the thought, and their eyes met immediately as they both were at a lack of words. "Well...I'm sure you'll do well. You've survived almost a month here, away from your real home. I need to make headache medicine for you again."

"Thanks, Alice."

The redhead giggled softly and clutched Shun's belongings tightly. "Anything for you."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

In a fit, Dan hit the horn button on the steering wheel after getting lost. "This is even worse than driving through Infinite Hills! Why do people like to live in obscure places?!"

"I thought Runo gave you directions," Ace teased.

"Shut up! The GPS doesn't even know about the small roads and alleys in this area at all." The brunette dialed Runo's number, but no one answered. "Either she's ignoring me, or service sucks up here."

Fabia suggested, "Maybe we should park here and walk around."

"Sure." As soon as everyone got off the car, Dan saw a man carrying buckets of water and asked, "Sir, do you know where the Misakis live?"

"You mean Tatsuo and Saki Misaki? Their house has a large lemon tree in front."

"Thank you! Everyone, follow me!" The brunette led the way up a stone path until familiar people blocked their path. "Not **them** again!"

As usual, Mylene and the others wore masks during the ambush. "We need to steal that book from their hands."

"You already stole the metal box!" Dan complained. "Haven't you had enough?"

"How do they find us every time we go somewhere?" Marucho wondered.

As the assailants fought with the interns, a girl with blue pigtails descended a stone path and saw the altercation. "Everyone, help the brunette! Those masked people are attacking my friends!"

 _Is that who I think it is?_ Dan kicked Shadow in the shin and waved to the pigtailed girl. "Runo! Thank goodness you're here!"

A crowd of villagers came toward Runo's direction, with everyone carrying some tool for defense. Lena heard the crowd and called her colleagues off. "We'll be back next time."

Although the villagers didn't stop chasing the assailants away, Runo ran down and immediately hugged the brunette. "You're an idiot, Dan. You didn't call for help when you were in trouble."

"I couldn't find anyone **or** your address here! And...can you let go of me? You're hugging **really** tightly."

The bluenette pulled and turned way to hide her blush. "You never told me why you need come so urgently."

"I told you. I wanted to see you."

"You could've waited until I returned to Wardington. The route would've been much shorter."

"Uh...just take us to somewhere where we can sit, please."

"Fine." Runo turned around and noticed the other interns. "I didn't know Marucho, Ace, and Fabia came as well. Dan, why didn't you tell me that you brought guests?! Now everyone will think that I'm a bad host."

"It's not your fault, Runo..." the other three interns insisted.

"Either way, you're all here now, so I'll take you to the old house where my grandparents raised me before I returned to Wardington. There's no point in moving the car because there won't be any space." Runo led the way from their current location to her old house. "Have a seat. I'll get you all some water."

"Runo, wait." Marucho called. "We're here for serious business. Can we all talk in somewhere private?"

"Serious? Private?" The bluenette glanced at Dan, who nodded slightly, and realized that the interns weren't here for a simple visit. "Go to the dining room then."

After Runo led the way, Dan explained everything. "Runo, I'm sorry for not visiting you as often when I go back to Wardington, but we're in serious trouble. Our recent archaeological site got invaded and then exploded. There are some thieves that are stalking us and stealing everything that we have. Even Shun disappeared in an attempt to reclaim an artifact, which means there's more to the artifact than just historical and monetary value."

"And you're in my parents' hometown because of that?"

"Yeah. The artifact led us to find a book and a map, which both led us to here for clues. In fact, if it weren't for Marucho's family secret, we wouldn't know to come here."

"Family secret? Dan, this is why I didn't pursue archaeology—because it's all too complicated for me. Although...how did Marucho know to reveal his family's secret? What's the connection?"

The blond spread out the hidden map and pointed to the legend box. "This may be in Old English, but the translation comes out to be a poem that my parents made me memorize."

"A poem? What poem?"

"After these two lines are, 'Starting with daybreak welcoming the morning dew; As rays of sunlight produce a cheerful hue'."

Runo gasped and shook her head. "That's impossible. My parents made me memorize the last line that you said."

Now the interns gasped and faced Runo. "You too?!"

"Be right back." The bluenette ran into one of the bedroom and took out a jewelry box. Inside was another brown-banded ring. "Where's yours?"

Marucho took out his blue ring and compared it with Runo's white ring. "Your ring looks almost like mine, except the ornament is white and not blue. Dan, translate this symbol on your—"

"Hold on! This is family heirloom! Dan, if you came all the way here to take this, then go home. I've not giving this up."

"Runo, you don't understand! Everyone else, get out. I need to talk to Runo alone."

Once the other three interns left, Runo spoke furiously. "You'd better tell me what's going on before I kick you out as well. You don't just visit someone after being away for so long and expect to take their stuff—"

"I'm sorry."

The bluenette calmed down and blinked. "Say what?"

"Runo, I'm sorry for not staying in touch with you as often after I came to Bayview to continue my studies in archaeology. I know academics are important, but so are my friends. I was **this** close to not being accepted into Joe's team of interns, so I had to prioritize some things over others. Can you forgive me?"

"Dan...you could've just said so. If you had told me that your position in this program wasn't very stable, then I wouldn't have pestered you as much."

"I know. That's why I'm apologizing. I've been doing better, which is why I could take more time off to talk to you. If your parents' hometown wasn't here, then I wouldn't know who else to ask for help. I want to solve this mystery as soon as possible so we can find Shun and get those thieves off our backs."

Runo sighed and nodded. "I'm sorry for not understand how pressuring archaeology is."

"It's not your fault, Runo. You're not pursuing a career in archaeology after all."

"I guess I knew better then. You guys can come back now!" A minute later, the other interns came back. "Who thought it was a good idea to pair an ugly brown band with a white piece of stone on this ring? Thank goodness this was meant to be hidden."

"Let me see." Dan translated the symbol with his phone. "Just an Ancient Vestroian character for 'light'. Wasn't light mentioned in the poem? And Runo, do you know the next line?"

"The poem mentioned 'sunlight', which technically is light. This is the next line that my parents told me to memorize."

 _As rays of sunlight produce a cheerful hue_

 _To warm a dried soul revitalizing in the shade_

Ace scrunched his forehead. "That doesn't rhyme."

Fabia searched for prescriptions in the medicine book. "There's one for making an herbal tea that cures heat stroke problems. It also says that patients should stay in the shade to avoid the sun."

Ace scrunched his forehead again. "That's so obvious that it's pathetic."

"There's no other prescription that uses the other uncommon words in the new poem line," the green-eyed intern argued back.

"Okay stop!" Dan memorized the special numbers and found the next location on the map. "Marucho, do you have a modern-day map?"

"I got it." The shorter intern laid a modern map over the ancient map and concluded, "The next location is in what **used** to be the Kingdom of Gundalia."

Fabia gagged. "Excuse me. **Gundalia**?"

"That's what the maps say," the blond and brunette both replied. "What's wrong?"

"Ren's hometown is on old Gundalian land..."

All five of them exchanged confused glances at each other until Dan spoke. "I wasn't expecting that. Aside from visiting people's hometowns," He then took out photographs out of his backpack. "I should mention that Runo and Marucho's rings **might** fit into the small slots on each side of the metal box. Take a look."

Fabia and Ace observed Runo and Marucho placing their rings on various photographs. "There's a specific face for a specific ring," the ring carriers commented.

"I thought so. Too bad we don't have the box. We can't move on without it. All this is driving me crazy!"

"Dan...I want to help." Runo suddenly proposed. "I can't stand seeing you like this."

"Runo, this is dangerous stuff that we're talking about. Everything from being chased to Shun's disappearance still haunts us."

"Which is why want to help! Shun's my friend, too. Clearly, our family secrets can't stay secrets any longer. I want to be there for you all if anything happens."

"Runo..." Dan breathed deeply and faced the others. "What do you guys think?"

"Runo and I **definitely** have a lot to talk about," Marucho concurred.

"I think Runo's presence around our work place will keep you more concentrated, Dan." Ace teased.

"Aside from **that** , if Runo's not busy, then she can definitely help with this mystery while we work on our archaeology work." Fabia suggested. "There's not much archaeology to this mystery other than locating people."

"Well, then. Welcome to the team, Runo!" Dan cheered. "I know you need to help your parents, so let us know when you're free. Meanwhile, out next stop is Ren's hometown! I haven't see him in ages since passing the archaeology entry exam."

"Yeah...me neither..." the green-eyed intern whispered. _I wonder if he's still mad at me._


	8. Alternative Therapies

"I don't get why my head still hurts..."

Ever since Shun saw Hydron in the most recent victim's vision, his headaches became worse and recurred more frequently. Alice came back from the kitchen with a bowl of soup. "I asked Grandfather for the best way to treat your headache, and he gave me a recipe for the strongest sedative that he knew. Where else do you feel pain?"

The raven-haired youth took a sip from the spoon and flinched. "Let's hope this works. I only have headaches for now and can't study at all."

"Can you help me with my herbalist exam, then?"

"I'll try." He drank half of the bowl and wiped his mouth. "That only made me feel **slightly** better. What do you need?"

The redhead handed him a stack of papers and sat on the wooden sofa across from him. "Those are my notes. Quiz me."

"Let's see..." Shun pulled out a random page from the stack and devised a question. "Name a difference between saffron and safflower."

"Saffron is generally used a spice in cooking and infused in water. Safflower, on the other hand, is not usually consumed raw and made into oil if to be used for cooking. Both should never be given to pregnant women because of increased likelihood of contractions."

Shun heard the last phrase and was at a loss of words. "Too much information, Alice."

"But I'm a girl, after all."

"I know. A very smart and clever one, too." he complimented, causing the redhead to giggle softly. The raven-haired youth grabbed another paper. "What's the best plant to use to treat burns?"

"Aloe vera."

"What's the best plant to treat cuts?"

No response.

Shun was busy reading Alice's notes that he didn't realize she didn't answer. "Did you hear my question?"

The redhead looked up and sighed deeply. "Sorry, Shun. When you asked me about treating cuts, I immediately thought of those dead bodies that we keep finding."

"Looks like you can't focus on studying either." The raven-haired youth set the herbology notes aside. He drank the rest of the soup and asked, "Is there something else on your mind?"

"I'm excellent with making medicine, but I wish I learned more about anatomy from Grandfather. Then I could find out more about the victims... **and** your headache."

Shun smiled and sat next to Alice and took out his phone, which she hadn't seen for a long time. "When I was still in school, I relied on this a lot to take notes so that I could study wherever I go. It's not useful here, but it works extremely well at home."

"You still never told me what this is."

"You wouldn't understand. It's a smartphone. Besides, I don't want to introduce new information to you while you're studying."

"Shun, I know my plants and medicine very well. I said that to you because you knew nothing about being a 'land surveyor'. I went to the market again and saw that the land surveyor exam is the very first one to be administered."

"I know. That's why I'm worried about this persistent headache. By the way, do you know what prophylactic medication is?"

"Not really. What is it?"

"It's a term used to describe medications taken to prevent problems from happening. Some people need prophylactic medications daily for various conditions based on family history, past exposure, or even where they live. I'm sure you and your grandfather are giving it to patients every day without even knowing."

"Preventative methods...hmm..." Alice searched through her notes and then pulled out some medicine shelf from the shelf. "Shun, do your headaches prevent you from sleeping well?"

"Sometimes... I often wake up randomly in the middle of the night. What's wrong?"

"One patient recently brought his pillow over so that Grandfather can determine necessary changes to be made for better sleep. Maybe I can make you a medicinal pillow."

"A **what**?"

"It's like a regular pillow, but infused with herbs, particularly those that aid with sleep. I'll make you one by tonight when I—"

Shun walked up to Alice and held her by her shoulders to calm her down. Unsure of what was happening, her heart raced again at the closeness between them and the sound of Shun's dysrhythmic breathing from his headache. "You don't have to this. I'm don't want to take up your time."

"Shun...just let me do it." She brushed his arms off and felt his forehead, to his surprise. "Every time I feel your forehead, I feel the pain too."

"Do you?"

"Maybe because I know your routine well enough know."

"That sounds like something my mom would say."

"It does? So is that good or bad?"

The raven-haired youth chuckled slightly as he went back to his seat. "Of course it's a good thing. It means that you're a caring person, although I'm not sure if it will be useful during the herbalist exams."

"Probably not, but I'll work on your medicinal pillow right now. You can help me, since neither of us can focus on studying."

"I don't mind. Also, do you know what therapeutic index means?"

"That sounds even more complicated than what you said earlier."

"It's a measure of how safe or dangerous a substance is. A low index means that the substance will harm you easily in even the smallest amounts. A high index means that the substance needed an extremely large dose to kill."

"Oh...kind of like 'the dose makes the poison'? Thanks for reminding me to not put so many herbs into your pillow then."

"Wait, why?"

"Firstly, I don't want the herbs to kill you by accident. Even if it doesn't kill you, a lot of herbs at once may cause diminished therapeutic response in the long run. Secondly, as long as you're not fully healed, I can spend all the time that I want to treat you. You can't object to that."

"Alice Gehabich, what exactly is going on in your mind...?"

"All of this is for you, remember?"

The redhead giggled on her way out of the living room as Shun stared in amazement and disbelief. _What have_ _ **you**_ _turned_ _ **me**_ _into? What have_ _ **I**_ _turned_ _ **you**_ _into?_

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"The box...is back?!"

Dan couldn't believe his eyes, but Joe nodded his head and pointed to the metal treasure box resting at the front steps of the interns' work building. "I thought it was fake, but turned to be real. Why did they sneaked **inside** the building to steal the box, but left the box **outside** when returning?"

"Do you want them to sneak in here one more time to tamper with other stuff?!"

"I'm **just** saying. Why would they take the effort to steal **but** return the same thing?"

"Me either. By the way, why **were** you in here? I thought the police needed your help."

"Not today. Therefore, I stayed to work on the preserved body that we found in the casket." Joe led the four interns upstairs and across a skybridge to a different building. "We're presenting our findings soon. I hope you can all stay."

"Uh..." Dan turned around and whispered to the interns, "I guess we can stay? We weren't planning on going to Ren's hometown today, anyway."

"I think Runo said she'll available starting today and **may** need one of us to pick her up," Fabia recalled.

Ace clicked his tongue. "Runo doesn't need to be picked up by more than one person. Can't she come here herself?"

Marucho took out his ring and reminded, "Runo wouldn't give us her ring last time for safety purposes, so she'll have to come here eventually when we place the rings on the metal box."

"Well, then. We'll stay for Joe's presentation and then deal with Runo and the metal box later." The brunette turned around and replied, "Save four seats for us, Joe!"

"Sounds great! I can't wait to show you the new technology that we used to reconstruct the deceased's face!"

Upon hearing that, all four interns tensed and muttered, "Um... okay..."

An hour later, other archaeologists and student interns arrived in the other building and gathered in the largest conference room. After everyone sat down, Joe proudly stood at the front of the room with the projector and laptops in front of him. "Hello everyone. My name is Joe Brown. I am the lead archaeologist for excavations carried out in Bayview. As you may have heard, my team excavated a casket that contained a very well-preserved body. The lack of humidity and oxygen in the area greatly slowed down the decomposition process. Among the audience, I would like to thank Miss Christina and Miss Susanna for offering the software that I will soon use to digitally reconstruct the deceased man's face."

In the very back of the room, a blonde girl with short hair and an auburn girl with wavy hair simply waved and let Joe speak again.

"Thank you, ladies. I personally haven't tried reconstructing the face, since I wanted to save the big revelation for today's presentation. To perform the reconstruction, my team and I used professional cameras to carefully photograph the entire body **without** taking it out of the casket. All the photographs are projected on the screen right on behind me. Now, here goes nothing..."

The lead archaeologist typed on his laptop and executed the software. Bizarre equations and graphs appeared on the screen as the software analyzed photos of the skull and hypothetically applied muscles and facial features. A few minutes later, the software completed its work.

Only, **no one** expected the results to come out that way.

Dan previously left to use the restroom and came back to see Marucho dragging him over and pointing to the screen. "Look at **that**!"

The brunette looked up and gasped. "Joe, why is my photo on the screen?! Is this a joke?!"

"It's **not** you," the lead archaeologist insisted. Even Joe didn't know what was happening. "Everyone, I **honestly** have no idea why this preserved male body is expected to look Dan Kuso."

"Did you make a mistake, Joe?" Fabia asked.

"Fabia, that's a stupid question." Ace argued. "All he did was upload photos to the software server. Unless the calculations went wrong, there's no way that human error caused this."

"Either way...I can't deal with this right now." After Dan hyperventilated and rushed out of the conference room, he entered a single-stall restroom and dialed a number. "Runo, are you there?"

"Dan, are you okay? You sound short of breath. "

"I don't know what to say. The metal box is back, which is good for us but also suspicious at the same time. Joe just presented a digital reconstruction of an excavated preserved body and ended up with a face that resembles mine. Shun is **still** missing. I don't know what to do..."

"Some things will always be out of our reach, Dan. What time did you want me to come over?"

"How long can you stay?"

"I can easily make arrangements to leave Wardington. Maybe I can stay at Fabia's place."

"Sounds good. Hey, Runo?"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks for being at my side, even though you know nothing about archaeology."

The bluenette laughed for a moment and replied, "Thanks for not forgetting about me. I'll tell Fabia now. I should be there in half an hour."

After hanging up, Dan entered the hallways and cross the skybridge to the interns' workspace. Marucho and Ace sat around the round glass table with the metal box in front of them. "You guys are here already? That was fast."

"We stayed in the conference room for a while to speak with Joe, Miss Christina, and Miss Susanna," the blond intern replied. "Nobody knows why the skull would produce **your** face. Fabia said that Runo's calling her, so let's place my ring on the box first."

"Good idea." the brunette nodded.

"Wait for me!" Runo's voice screamed from the front lobby, followed by Fabia who was nearly out of breath. "Dan, you don't just save all the fun stuff for yourself."

"How did you get here so fast?!"

"Apparently, she was already driving here when you called her earlier, Dan." replied Fabia in between breaths. "Never underestimate."

"Yeah, well, just put the rings on the box already."

Marucho placed his ring first. The blue ornament entered one of the slots, and the blond intern twisted the ring to pull the band off. The ring ornament emitted blue light that travelled through the detailed cracks until the entire face of the cube glowed blue. Something clicked softly, but all was silent later. "I think that's it..."

"That was **anticlimactic** ," the brunette and mint-haired interns complained.

"I wonder what made the click noise," Fabia pointed out.

"Step aside, guys. It's my turn." Runo took out her ring and placed it on the appropriate slot. Aside from everything glowing yellow-white instead of blue, the lighting and click noise was the same as before. "I think that's it, too. What now?"

"Tomorrow, we're going to Ren's hometown to search for clues," Dan declared. "We need to solve this mystery before the artifact thieves do."

"Or maybe the artifact thieves returned the box because they already know that they don't have the capabilities to open the box." Runo argued. "Dan, you're an idiot. You don't even know that you're being used."

"Runo, look on the bright side. This artifact is government property. Therefore, we're only helping ourselves. Those thieves shouldn't exist in the first place."

"Yeah. I'm done talking to you. Fabia, let's go."

The navy bluenette intern shrugged. "Sorry, guys. See you all—"

"Fabia, wait." Ace called. "Do you know what Ren is doing right now? **We** haven't seen him since passing the archaeology entry exam as well."

"Ren said he moved back to his hometown to be a tourist guide. That's all that I know."

"At least he doesn't have to be far away from home," Marucho commented. "Good night, you two. See you tomorrow!"

As the girls exited the building, Runo noticed Fabia's sudden change in movement. "Are you upset? Is it about Ren?"

"I'm fine, Runo. I haven't seen him in a long time, either."

"Then why the sad face?"

"Because...he didn't pass the archaeology entry exam. When he found out, he was pretty upset and didn't talk to us for a while."

"Maybe tomorrow's trip will settle old problems, like how Dan and I settled mine."

"Runo, this is different. You each pursued your favorite subjects and got accepted. Ren didn't get accepted into archaeology, but **I** did. I think he's still mad at me."

"Whether he's mad at you or not, we'll see tomorrow."

As they drove to Fabia's place in their own vehicles, a man dressed in all black from head-to-toe watched the male interns leave the building. Lena approached the man and asked, "Why did we agree to give the box back?"

"Because **they** can solve mystery while **we** arrive in the end to claim it for ourselves," the man replied in his digitally-altered voice. "Keep a close eye on them when they travel tomorrow, but **don't** attack them like the previous two long-distance travels. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. I'll let the others know."


	9. Let No One Down

Out of the blue, Alice decided to gather her closest friends together for a group social in a remote field by the bay. Happening now was a sword fight between Dan and Ren, in which the latter won.

The brunette finally admitted defeat and shook hands with the Gundalian prince. "When I first met Shun, I won. When I first met you, you won. Gundalian physical training is definitely something worth learning from."

"Don't feel too upset, Dan. Gundalia is best known for its strict army training. You're rather skilled yourself. Shun, your turn!"

The raven-haired youth picked up Dan's weapon. "I have no idea why a land surveyor exam has a physical training portion that requires the use of a sword."

"Maybe to protect yourself while exploring undiscovered land," Ren suggested before the sword fight was on.

Everyone watched the duel closely, for it lasted longer than Dan and Ren's duel. Runo leaned over to Alice and whispered, "I thought you didn't like watching this stuff."

"Like Shun said, he needs practice for the physical training portion, and going against Dan every day doesn't allow room for improvement."

"So you're doing this for Shun?"

Alice reconsidered her answer to that question. "Part of it, yes. But mostly so that we can all have fun together."

"Admit it, Alice. This **is** for—"

"I can't believe Shun won!" Marucho screamed.

The Gundalian prince couldn't believe it either. "I have **not** lost to anyone since forever. I knew you would be a strong opponent from the moment I first met you, but not **that** strong."

"Ren, you're exaggerating. I just need to get everything together and pass the entire exam. I wasn't expecting to defeat you, especially since I barely defeated Dan when I first met him."

"You can say that again!" the brunette complained as everyone laughed.

Fabia approached the two swordsmen and complimented. "Shun, I knew you weren't an ordinary person once I realized Alice brought you as her guest to my banquet. Ren, no matter how upset you feel about yourself, this doesn't change how I think or feel about you."

Ren chuckled softly. "That somewhat made me feel better, especially since the wedding date is fixed. Unfortunately, we cannot invite the rest of you because Prince Hydron will have changed border regulations by then, if everything goes according to his plans."

Ace shrugged and held his hands out. "He won't change the travel policy for the royal family or government staff, but he's definitely enforcing restrictions for trade merchants in fear of smuggling illegal goods. Not that I ever did that."

"Which means I can't visit my distant relatives more often," Mira sighed. "I can't always use Ace's travel license."

After a long dismal conversation about how bad Hydron was, everyone returned home. Shun walked with Alice and thanked her for today's group social. "I haven't been with so many people together at once just for fun. I'm surprised that Mira, Ace, Fabia, and Ren could all make it, despite not being local."

"Since you've met so many new people here already, I thought it would be a good idea to gather everyone together so that you can practice for the physical training portion of your exam—and to feel more at home. You have friends at home, right? Wouldn't they want to hang out together?"

"I do have many close friends, but we decided to study different subjects and somewhat drifted apart. It's as if you and all your close friends decided to take different exams, with some of you staying in the palace while the others stay home."

"That sounds painful... I hope you're doing well—"

A horse neighed before the walking pair. In the path was a horse-drawn carriage, surrounded by palace soldiers. From the carriage, a young man with pale green hair and violet eyes stepped out. "We meet again."

Alice hid behind Shun in fear. "What's Prince Hydron doing here?" she whispered. "Don't tell me he heard our conversation earlier."

"I'm more concerned about what 'meet again' means, despite never speaking with him before."

The young prince descended from the carriage and approached the pair. "Do you not remember? We were in Neathia for Princess Faviola's coming-of-age ceremony. It's rather embarrassing for a member of the royal family to **not** be invited, while two nameless civilians—"

"What do you want?" Shun interrupted.

"Sellon, you break the news," ordered Hydron. "I'm not wasting another breath on them."

A woman with pale pink skin and teal hair in a ponytail stepped forward. "What Prince Hydron wants is simple. He would like to take Miss Alice in a concubine."

The raven-haired youth glanced at the redhead, who shook her head in confusion. "Excuse me?!" they both screamed.

A taller man with silver hair in a spiky hairstyle spoke next. "Prince Hydron sorted through the applications already and found Miss Alice's name. Among all the female applicants, she's the only one taking the herbalist exam, whereas all others are applying to become palace workers. Prince Hydron thought that taking you in as a concubine would be a much better life than—"

"Anubias, we're done talking here," the prince interrupted. "Think about it, Miss Alice. I'll be waiting for your response. As for **you**..." Hydron walked closer to Shun as they engaged in a stern staring contest. "Good luck on tomorrow's exam. You'll **need** it." He laughed casually before returning on the carriage as the entire entourage left.

The redhead finally stepped out from behind Shun and breathed. "As prince of Vestroia, he probably has a network of people who have nothing better to do than—" Suddenly, the raven-haired youth hugged her tightly. "Shun, what are you doing?"

"Do you have any idea how dangerous that was? Hydron could've ordered his people to take you away just now, but he chose to leave us hanging. On the other hand, I couldn't tell if the unknown people in that most recent vision are Sellon and Anubias or not."

"Looks like we won't know until later. I know we all have a bad opinion of him, but don't be so pessimistic. I'm alive and well...for now. But he has a point. Your entire exam is tomorrow. You should go back and rest."

"Whatever you say, Alice."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Although Ren's hometown wasn't as remote or obscure as Infinite Hills or Runo's parents' hometown, it was difficult to find parking because of countless tourists and tour buses. Dan parked in the first open spot he found. "At least we have free parking. This map likes to take us to crowded places."

"More like **familiar** places," Ace argued. "First Marucho, then Runo, and now Ren. This is just weird. What if he has the next ring?"

Marucho gasped and pulled his hair. "Then he could be in danger! So far, the thieves have chased us to wherever we go. This trip isn't any different. Where is Ren? We need to—"

"Actually, where is **Fabia**?" Runo interrupted. The guys paused and stared at Runo before looking around. "Wasn't she in the back seat with Ace and Marucho?"

The mint-haired intern glanced at Dan's car. "Marucho sat in the middle because he's small. He and I got out of the passenger-side door while Fabia went out the other door..."

"It's official! She ran off!" Dan declared. "I don't get her problem. What's wrong with seeing an old friend that you haven't seen in a long time?"

The bluenette smacked the brunette on the back of his head. "Looks like you'll never understand. Ren didn't get accepted into the archaeology program and is probably still bitter about it. Fabia thinks that things will get worse by coming here."

"So? It's Ren's fault for not studying hard enough."

"That's not my point!"

While those two argued, Marucho tapped Ace's arm and asked, "Are you in a relationship by any chance?"

"What?! No! Why do you even ask?!"

"Then you can come with me to find Ren and Fabia."

"Regardless if I'm in a relationship, it doesn't affect our task here."

"I just wanted to make sure so that you don't feel tempted to enter their argument."

"Nobody should get between Dan and Runo once they've started arguing. Now let's go."

While each pair of people did what they did, Fabia stopping hiding behind a stone wall and walked off. _What will Ren think when he sees me again? I should've called in sick._ She twirled a strand of hair stressfully and continued walking.

Someone screamed from an old stone bridge in the distance. "Help! My husband fainted!"

The bluenette intern gasped and rushed forward. She approached the woman and asked, "What were you two doing?"

"We were walking around the old infrastructures by ourselves. My husband said he was thirsty, so we stopped to drink water, but then he collapsed and isn't responding. Please help us!"

With permission, Fabia checked the man's pulse and forehead temperature. "His pulse his weak, and his forehead is heating. He might be having a heat stroke. Cool him off for now." She approached the end of the bridge and screamed, "We need medical attention! Someone had a heat stroke!"

In the distance, a silver-haired tour guide was leading a group of tourists when they all heard Fabia call for help. The guide looked ahead using binoculars and ordered the group to stay. "Don't move! I need to check on that person that needs help!" He adjusted his cap and ran forward. "What's wrong with—" Before he could finish his sentence, he stared at the bluenette in front of him that screamed earlier. "Are you—"

"This young lady believes that my husband has a heat stroke," the wife interrupted. "What can we do? The nearest hospital is too far away."

"Unfortunately, you're right," he replied, still shocked to see a familiar person. "I'm Ren Krawler, one of the tour guides here. It would take too long for an ambulance to come here from the hospital, but do you have a vehicle?"

"Sorry, but we don't."

"I know someone who does. Give me a moment." Fabia stepped back and called Dan's number. "I need your help. A man suffered from heat stroke, and I hope you can drive him to the nearest hospital because the ambulance will take forever to arrive."

"No worries. Tell me where you are." After exchanging information, Dan and Runo arrived at the scene. "Okay, we need to reevaluate. My car can't fit **that** many people."

"Apparently, both Ren and Fabia are here," Runo noticed. "We don't know where Marucho and Ace wandered off to, but Dan and I can accompany the couple to the hospital."

Dan, Runo, and the wife carried the husband all the way back to Dan's car, leaving Fabia behind with Ren. The bluenette avoided eye contact and said, "I need to find Marucho and Ace before they—"

"I wasn't expecting you here."

"Well...I'm here for work purposes, which is why Dan and the others are here too."

"I understand," replied the silver-haired tourist, making the bluenette intern somewhat uncomfortable. "Maybe you should walking with my tour group. We're returning to the check-in building's main lobby in a few minutes."

"Sure..." After Ren turned around, Fabia let out deep breaths and held her forehead. _How_ _can Ren remain so calm like this after failing the exam?_

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Twelve people applied for the land surveyor position. Nine of twelve passed the written test, where everyone took it in the same room with many proctors surveilling. Seven of nine passed the oral test, where test takers individually met with the judges. Four of seven passed the interactive field test, where each test taker was assigned to record specific details of the area of Vestroia that they were assigned to observe.

The final physical training test was open to the public and held near the execution field. Contestants were split into pairs, and the test used a double elimination system, where anyone who lost twice would be eliminated. Long story short, Shun passed all three previous tests and pass every round during the physical training test.

Alice and her local friends took front row seats at the arena and cheered when the referee concluded that Shun had advanced. "He doesn't look tired at all," the redhead commented.

"Who would feel tired while knowing that friends are here to cheer?" Runo replied. "Also, who was it that wanted front row seats?"

"I wanted to stand in the back, but it was full already, and the front row was miraculously unoccupied."

"Right... **miraculously**." A horse neighed in the distance, followed by the sound of someone jumping onto the dirt ground. "The crowd become quiet **really** quickly."

A young woman with green spiky hair and a fancy ruby hair clip screamed from the side entrance. "Prince Hydron has arrived!" Everyone stood up, bowed down, and greeted the visitor.

Hydron permitted everyone to sit again. "Thank you, Zenet. Since today is the first outdoor exams, I decided to come and observe the progress myself." He looked at the referee's records of who won and lost. "This is a surprising record. Shun Kazami, you defeated the other three contestants cleanly. However, you're not the winner **yet**."

The audience gasped, but Shun asked nonchalantly, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Spectra, bring **it** over." Hydron beckoned. A tall man with long blond hair and a red mask approached the prince and bowed down to present a sword. Unlike Shun's or his previous opponent's swords, Hydron sword was fancier and not traditional at all. He claimed the weapon and pointed it at Shun. "I'm offering you a special challenge. If you win, then you earn the title. If **I** win..." He snickered a bit as Shun maintained his glare. "...then you leave Vestroia **forever**."

The referee intervened. "Prince Hydron, I'm not sure if that's—"

"Silence! I'm the prince of Vestroia, so I can change the rules anytime I want. Shun Kazami, are you up for this? Because quitting now will **also** get you exiled."

 _He's purposely making this more difficult for me ever since last time._ "What if you get injured by accident? Are you going to exile me for that too?"

"Nothing's ever an accident here. You wouldn't dare hurt me."

Some people screamed, "That's not fair!"

Others cheered, "Make it exciting!"

Alice stood up and shouted, "Shun! You can do this! Don't let him taunt you!"

 _I know that voice..._ He turned to the side and saw Alice with Runo, Dan, and Marucho. _That's right. The other exams haven't started yet._ Amidst the approval and opposition of the general audience, the redhead's words provided morale support. _She knows best about Hydron's intentions. I can't let her or the others down._ Shun gripped his sword 's handle tightly and pointed the blade and Hydron. "Bring it on."

"I can't believe you told Shun to fight Hydron like that," Dan complained. "What if Shun messes up?"

Marucho pushed his glasses up. "Don't be so pessimistic, Dan. Even if Shun is tired from three previous rounds, I doubt Hydron is any better than the other contestants."

Alice nodded in agreement. "Shun's been training hard for this, and you all know it. I'm certain that he'll win." Despite her confident words, she gripped the edge of her skirt in worry. _Shun_ , _I know you want to go against Hydron because of what he said to me, but don't hurt yourself either..._

The referee had no choice but to begin this new round. Unfortunately, Hydron already had the upper hand since he was less fatigued and used a better weapon. Shun could barely maintain defense against the Vestroian prince. "Tired already, Shun?"

"Not even close," replied the raven-haired contestant, although it clearly was a lie. It was afternoon, with the sun still high up. Hydron consistently switched hands to carry his sword, which distracted Shun from focusing on his opponent. "What did I ever do to you?"

"You didn't have to do anything. Some people are just **begging** to be hated." Hydron snickered once more before spinning his sword like a propeller blade with both hands, forcing Shun to maintain an uncomfortable defensive position.

In a fit, the raven-haired contestant slashed his sword forward, which barely damaged Hydron but took a toll on himself. Shun kneeled on the ground, his hands trembling and struggling to hold his sword. _I clearly underestimated Hydron._

The audience went silent as they waited for either opponent's next move. Marucho covered his eyes. "I can't look. Shun looks like a mess."

"We would've spent more time training if I didn't have to report to my supervising general all the time," Dan regretted.

Runo laid a hand on each of both boys' shoulders. "No matter what, I choose to believe that Alice is right. Karma will come back at Hydron for making Shun accept this ridiculously stupid challenge."

The rest of the crowd shouted opposing opinions again. Alice watched nervously exploded. "Shun, do whatever you need to take him down! I believe in you!"

 _Alice is right. I can't lose, or else she'll be forced to not even officially marry Hydron._ Suddenly, Shun felt a burning sensation on his chest and pulled on his collar. He saw faint yellow rays of light and remembered that he wore the phoenix pendant this whole time. _There's more to this pendant than what meets the eye._


	10. Wishing for Miracles

The raven-haired contestant stood up confidently while everyone gasped as Hydron gritted his teeth. "Unbelievable...but you still won't win!"

The prince charged forward with his sword, but Shun blocked every attack and successfully made a cut on Hydron's uniform. He maintained offense until pushing Hydron all the back to the end of the field with the blade tip at the prince's neck. "Who has the upper hand now?"

"I still have one trick up my sleeve..." Hydron snickered and ducked while brandishing his sword at the ground, creating a dust cloud in Shun's direction. Hydron made a cut on Shun's dominant hand, making Shun drop his sword. The Vestroian prince charged forward again with his sword tip pointed straight at Shun's face. "You should've dropped out while you had the chance!"

All eyes focused on Hydron. Dan recognized what the prince was doing and gasped. "He's doing what I did with Shun the first time! Shun had better flip that sword out of Hydron's hands!"

"But Hydron cheated when he kicked dirt in Shun's face," Runo complained.

Marucho leaned forward and squinted. "Shun's hand is bleeding. I'm not sure if he can stop Hydron's sword in time."

Alice watched closely without saying a word. _Shun, please be all right..._

Shun glanced at his fallen sword, and then at the audience. When the time was right, he stepped to the side, but instead of pressing the opponent's blade with both palms, Shun grabbed the blade tightly with his uncut hand. The blade moved forward slightly and cut his hand, but Shun ultimately stopped Hydron and the sword single-handedly. "Nice try, but not even cheating worked on me."

"How...did...you...even...?"

Suddenly, all sensation of pain went away, and Shun used his injured dominant hand as well to grip the bare blade. While holding tightly, Shun swiftly turned 360 degrees as his feet stayed in the same place, while Hydron succumbed to the changing speed and flipped over, automatically releasing his weapon. Still holding it by the blade, Shun tossed Hydron's sword into the air and caught it by the handle, then aimed the blade at the prince, who now laid helplessly on the ground. "You were saying?"

Hydron's four closest aides rushed forward to help, but the prince waved his hand to call them off. "Fine. Shun Kazami, you **win**."

Met with mixed feelings from the audience, Shun added, "You shouldn't have gotten involved with someone else's business in the first place."

Some people whispered, "I can't believe he defeated Prince Hydron so easily like that..."

Others complained, "Hydron shouldn't have cheated into the first place."

Prince Hydron stood up and asked for his sword back. "You may be a worthy opponent, but what happened here won't change my mind about taking Miss Alice in as my concubine."

Shun smirked and picked up his weapon. "We'll see about that."

After Hydron left, the referee approached Shun and said, "That was an automatic victory for you, so I'll finalize the official records now."

As Shun bowed and walked away, he saw his friends running over. "You're all here. Thanks to Hydron, we all wasted too much time."

Dan gently punched the raven-haired contestant's arm. "That was even better than when we fought! Teach me how you do this, Shun!"

"Don't listen to a word that Dan says," Runo warned. "He just wants to show off to his supervising general in the future."

"I'm worried that Hydron may interfere with future exams, but let's hope this experience will teach him not to," Marucho prayed.

"Thanks for supporting me the whole time." _Wait, where's Alice?_ He looked around and saw the redhead, her face wet with tears. "Alice, why are you crying? I won against—"

"I know you won, but at the expense of injuries on your hands."

"What are you talking about?" He showed her the front and back of his hands. "I'm perfectly fine. This cut from Hydron's sneak attack healed quickly, and I only have scratches on my palms from when I grabbed his blade."

"No way...but how?"

Shun looked around and leaned over to whisper, "I think the phoenix pendant helped me during halfway. Otherwise, I would've lost."

Alice stared at the superficial scratches and gently touched the initial cut before hugging him tightly. "You're my hero."

The raven-haired victor flustered at the sound of those words. "I wish. Hydron still insists on his original proposal. Since he found out about you from the applications, I'm scared that you'll target you from there."

"No matter what he does, I'll still take the herbalist exam. He's not in control of my life."

Shun let go of Alice and wiped her tears away. "That's the spirit."

"Thanks, Shun." Luckily, the redness on her face from crying masked the blush developed from him touching her face. However, she still couldn't stop thinking about Hydron cheating on the field earlier. _If he did that to Shun to win and get rid of him, then who knows what he'll do to me during_ _ **my**_ _exam?_

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"You're a tourist guide now?" Fabia asked, despite knowing the answer already.

"I am. It's not bad, since I grew up here, and people know me well."

Another awkward silence followed as Fabia and Ren sat in the waiting room of the travel agency check-in center. Eventually, the bluenette asked, "Can you help us with something?"

"Say it."

"Dan, Runo, Ace, Marucho, and I came here to investigate something, and one of the clues led us here to your hometown. I wanted—"

"Hold on." Ren interrupted and counted his fingers. "Runo's not studying archaeology. What's she doing you guys?"

"There was another clue that led us to her parents' hometown, so Runo came along since she didn't trust Dan doing risky things—"

"Is this real?" After being interrupted for the second time, Ren and Fabia stared at each other before the tour guide spoke again. "I have nothing against Runo, but **why** is she with you? What did I ever do wrong?"

"Ren, what are you talking about? What's there to compare between you and Runo?"

"I studied extremely hard for the archaeology entrance exam with all of you, yet I was the only one who didn't pass. **You** made it, yet didn't even come talk to me about it."

"If that's what you're still upset about, then I'll apologize right now. I'm sorry for not keeping in touch, but this is a competitive field of study, and I had to work on my other applications as well."

"Dan scored the highest but still took time out to help me with packing and all that."

"How can you compare me to Dan?! Ren, I never looked down on you for not passing, but those who passed were required to start the program. I still had a lot of work to finish up. What does this have to do with Runo?"

"Dan still keeps in touch with Runo, but I haven't heard from you ever since."

"Runo pursued a different career path to begin with. I didn't talk to you because I didn't want to remind you of archaeology."

"You could've sent me a card or even a text—"

"What is happening?!" Dan arrived in the waiting room with Runo as Ren and Fabia immediately went silent again. "You two were just talking earlier. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," they both answered.

"Well then, I'll talk instead. Runo and I drove the married couple to the hospital and just came back. Ace and Marucho are walking back here right now after wandering off too far. Hey Ren, maybe you can help us with—"

Runo dragged the brunette aside and whispered, "I think they were **arguing** heatedly. You're not making the situation any better."

"So what do we do?"

"Leave it to me." The pigtailed girl approached Fabia and Ren. "Care to explain what you two were talking about earlier?"

"No," they answered again.

"If that's the case, then I spill everything. I know you two are extremely passionate about archaeology, but Fabia made it while Ren didn't. Ren, you felt very upset and wondered why you were the only one. You wanted someone to talk to, but the person you wanted to talk to the most wasn't there for you. Fabia, you passed with an exam score slightly below average, which drove you to work even harder to fully utilize the opportunity ahead of you. You didn't realize that Ren didn't pass and didn't follow up. Things were tough for both of you, but avoiding each other **won't** solve the problem."

Dan understood what Runo doing and chimed in. "Look at me and Runo. She entered culinary school while I'm pursuing archaeology. Even though our schedules are completely different, we still take time out to talk to each other. Recently, there have been some accidents at an archaeological site. There's a mystery behind one artifacts, and part of the investigation led us to Runo's parents' hometown. We realized that we don't take enough time out to talk, so now Runo's helping us uncover this mystery. You two probably won't listen to a single word we say, but remember this—don't forget the good times."

After hearing what Dan and Runo said, Ren and Fabia glanced at each other until looking away. After a while, the bluenette intern spoke. "I'm sorry for not being there when you needed support the most, Ren."

The tour guide sighed and faced Fabia. "I know you're very passionate about archaeology, and I understand how difficult the entire process was. I shouldn't have been so narrow minded like that."

"Hey guys, what did we miss?" Ace arrived in the lobby and greeted everyone. "Why's everyone all so silent suddenly?"

Marucho came in a few seconds later. "We tried asking around about any major event in history relating to this area, but everyone turned out to be a tourist. Nobody understands the poem as well."

"Poem?" Ren asked loudly, catching everyone's attention. "You all never told me why you're here in the first place."

Dan explained everything, as usual. "We should've asked you for help first, but then Fabia was here, and there were other problems..."

"I know what poem you're talking about." The tourist guide clenched his fist and cleared his throat.

 _To warm a dried soul revitalizing in the shade_

 _Coming from a tree grown where the fertile soil laid_

While Ace and Fabia looked for coordinates in the medicine book, Runo borrowed Dan's car keys to retrieve the metal box. "This is the artifact that we're talking about, Ren." Then she showed the two empty rings from herself and Marucho. "There are slots on the faces where the ornaments on our rings fit. You have one, right?"

Ren pulled on his collar and removed out the necklace that he wore. "Even since my parents passed away, I memorized that poem and kept this ring close to me." He opened the clasp and let the ring out of the chain. "What do you need it for?"

As usual, Dan took a picture of the purple stone ornament and translated the symbol. "This says 'darkness' in Ancient Vestroian. You can put it into the appropriate slot now."

After matching the correct shape, the tourist guide placed the ring ornament into the appropriate slot and twisted the band off as ordered. Purple light travelled through the detailed cracks until the entire face glowed purple. Something clicked softly again. "Did I do it right?"

Marucho nodded. "We don't know what to expect until all five rings have been gathered. We also don't know what the click—"

"Are you kidding me?!" shouted the mint-haired intern while flipping pages. "There are **no** prescriptions with the words 'tree' or 'soil'! Ren, are you sure the poem is correct?"

"Ace, I swear. My parents said to only reveal it when the time is right. Runo and Marucho should understand. I wouldn't lie"

"Guys, please stop." Fabia begged. "Ren, I trust you. Ace, this isn't the time to blame anyone. I looked through the medicine book after Ace and also couldn't find any other prescriptions that contain other special words from the new line of poetry."

Dan nodded. "Fabia's right. Ren has work to do, so we shouldn't take up his time anymore. Let's go back and work on it tomorrow."

Before leaving, Fabia said to Ren, "I'm sorry that we met again and left under these circumstances. I'll visit next time."

"Take your time, Fabia. Go help Dan and the others solve this mystery first. Then we can talk all we want."

"Thanks, Ren. See you next time."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"This **can't** happening..."

Chris and Soon led Alice and Shun to a double murder of identical twin brothers. The redhead backed up at the sight. "We've never encountered two bodies at the same time and place before."

"This is why Chris and I wanted you two to come, even if there are exams and official work tomorrow," Soon admitted.

Shun approached one body and searched for wounds as the first vision appeared before his eyes. "I saw Hydron's assistants, but not the prince himself. Aside from Spectra, who always wears that mask, the others exposed their faces...maybe because they knew these victims would die soon? Also, these wounds look deeper than what we've seen, Alice."

"Not to mention, longer and wider as well." The redhead wrote everything down in her notebook. "What about the other body?"

The raven-haired youth repeated the process, but quickly pulled away after seeing the second vision. "I saw the murder weapon..."

The girls gasped. "What is it?!"

"This vision came and went quickly. From the victim's point of view, I saw a silver item reflect light before coming at me. There were also some black marks on the silver item, but they were too blurry to be read. The second body's wounds are of similar degree as the first. Surprisingly, I don't feel headaches."

"Maybe your body knows that you officially have work tomorrow," Alice suggested. "I wrote down our observations of the bodies and Shun's details of his visions. I'm surprised that two different bodies yielded two different visions that don't appear to be connected, but Hydron is definitely related to this."

"But Alice, we still don't have any motives or primary crimes scenes. Since we're done here, we should go home. You need to study, and I need to prepare paperwork."

"Fine. I ask for a miracle and end up with a double murder. Let's go."

After Chris and Soon left, Shun arrived home first under Alice's request, but didn't know where she went. He saw a stack of papers on the living room table, weighed down by a vase. "I've never seen so many forms in—"

"Grandfather wrote **that** many prescriptions today?!" screamed Alice as she returned with boxes and bags of stuff, which she set aside before flipping through the papers. "I'd better use the upstairs kitchen then. Shun, can you carry all my boxes and bags to the upstairs dining table?"

"Got it." Alice went upstairs first, and Shun carried everything upstairs. He resumed working on important papers before reporting to work tomorrow.

With prescription forms in one hand and study books in the other, Alice sighed and set everything down. _Might as well taste the medicine I made since it's more productive than studying._ A pot of medicine began boiling, so she decreased the fire and poured a small amount of yellow liquid into a bowl. After cooling, she transferred a small volume to another bowl and diluted the latter with water. She repeated the dilution a few times and drank the final yellow liquid, but ultimately flinched. "It's **still** too bitter..."

Shun smelled the bitter aroma while organizing papers on the balcony. "Alice, what did you even make? Your hands and utensils are all stained yellow."

"A toddler is suffering from multiple pus lesions. Grandfather cleaned them out carefully and prescribed a topical medication. Meanwhile, Ace gave me some Chinese goldthread earlier when he returned from another commute. Grandfather said that this would work as an oral medication, but it's **extremely** bitter. Even after ten serial dilutions, the liquid still tastes bad. I can't even rinse it out."

"I can help you with the prescriptions since you need to study."

"Shun, it's okay. I don't want to bother you." At the dining table, the redhead opened a few boxes, which Shun also looked through curiously. "Ace brought me some rare edible plants too, but I won't be able to taste them until the bitterness leaves my mouth."

"Which is why you should study first. If you won't let me assemble prescriptions, then at least let me taste these plants. Organizing papers isn't difficult for me."

"But a responsible herbalist should always personally—" Suddenly, a bubbling sound came from the stove. "I forgot to turn off the other fire!"

"See what I mean?" Shun set his stationery aside and checked out the plants on the table. Most of them were fruits that he recognized from modern day. "Ace gave you bananas, pomegranates, starfruits, cherries, peaches...actually, they might be apricots."

Alice tended to the other fire and turned to see Shun at the dining table. "I appreciate your comments, but I don't understand a single word you're saying, Shun."

"Not surprised." The only thing that he wasn't certain of was this one branch with red oval-shaped berries attached. Shun picked a berry off and observed it for seconds before taking a bite. The sweet flavor lingered in his mouth for minutes. _Is this what I think it is?_ "Alice, you should try this. It's unbelievably sweet."

The redhead turned the second fire off and moved the pot to the counter next to her. "I want to try, but my mouth is still bitter."

"I promise that you can taste everything normally again after eating this."

"Shun, I know you want to lessen my workload, but you just don't understand how I feel right now."

"You don't believe me, do you?"

"Okay, give me a moment." Alice moved another pot onto to the counter before turning around. "What did you want me to—"

Before she knew what was happening, Shun walked up and kissed her on the lips by surprise. Alice dropped the cloth in her hand as the raven-haired guest wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. He slipped his tongue inside her mouth, and the redhead finally understood why Shun wanted her to taste that rare plant so much. Eventually he pulled away, but their foreheads still touched with their bangs covering each of their faces as they breathed heavily. "Was that sweet enough to get rid of that bitter taste?"

"Definitely...enough." Alice licked her lips, then wiped her mouth to see sticky pink residue on her hand. Accustomed to seeing blood stain from dead bodies, this color and texture was novel to her. "Did you really not taste the bitterness from the Chinese goldthread?"

"I told you that this would make everything sweet."

"Is it really that magical?"

"In more ways than one."

"Like you?"

Shun took a moment to think, then leaned even closer to whisper into Alice's ear. "With or without it...you know everything will be sweet in the end."

The redhead gasped and retreated to pick up the fallen cloth. "I...need to clarify some directions with Grandfather. Be right back."

The raven-haired guest chuckled slightly as he watched her hurry away. _You wanted a miracle, Alice. I can't grant you a huge wish, but these miracle berries will do for now._

Alice stopped running and hid in the hallway, waiting for her blushed face to cool and her heart to stop racing. _What did_ _ **he**_ _do? What did_ _ **I**_ _do?_ She leaned against the wall and slid down while covering her mouth, yet smiling underneath. _You have no have no idea how happy I am to have you here, Shun._


	11. Independence and Self-Reliance

"I can't believe I stayed up all night..."

"You're the not the only one."

Alice woke up after seeing sunlight shine through the window into her eyes. Then she realized that she slept at the upstairs dining table. Shun was gathering papers together on the balcony. "Did **both** of us stay up here?" she asked.

"You already forgot what happened last night?"

The redhead stared back blankly. "What do you mean?"

Shun stood up and walked over, making Alice nervous. Then he stopped to pick up a blanket that fell to the ground. "After you left to talk to your grandfather, I went back to my room because the balcony was too cold. Then I came back after realizing that I forgot something up here. You already fell asleep at the table, but I didn't want to leave you alone, so I stayed. I originally brought the blanket to keep me warm, but I thought that you'd need it more than me since your exam is today." He waved the blanket to get rid of the dust. "It still ended up on the floor anyway."

"Oh...! Thanks, Shun. Sorry about that. I'm still nervous about the exam." She started a fire at the stove to heat up water. "I studied everything over again, but this exam takes multiple days."

"Although the herbalist exam is nothing like the land surveyor exam, I know you can do this."

"Shun...I—"

He took off his phoenix pendant and handed it to her. "Take it. It helped me with my exam, so it should help you too."

"But what if Chris and Soon find a body while I'm gone? What if you can't find any clues without the pendant on?"

"I can give you my phone as a good-luck charm, even though you can't use it."

"There will be guards and handmaidens searching each test taker's person. Speaking of 'phone', you never explained to me what it was."

"I'll make **one** exception for now." Shun took out his phone and held down the power button. Surprisingly, the screen turned on and indicated a half-full battery. "Remember when I said I used my phone to take notes? Here are some photos I took a while ago to help me remember important everyday details. I need to delete some eventually to clear space."

"How do you 'take' a 'photo'?" Alice swiped the screen like how her raven-haired guest was doing earlier. "They look so real, as if I'm actually there instead of seeing a rendition!"

"We can take a picture right now, if you want. Stand closer." As Shun the turned on the front-facing camera, the redhead moved over nervously. "Smile."

Alice smiled subtly until hearing the click sound from the phone. "Is that it?"

"That's it. Look." He handed her the phone and commented, "You weren't really smiling."

Instead, the redhead giggled before returning the phone. "Neither were you! But is it weird that I can tell how you're feeling just by looking at this...image?"

Shun smiled subtly in return as he turned off his phone. "That's exactly what photographs are for. Feeling better now?"

"A bit more relaxed, if that's you mean. Thank you, Shun." With that said, she planted a chaste kiss on his face.

 _I wonder if she remembers what happened last night_ _ **before**_ _falling asleep,_ he thought.

After eating breakfast, local friends sent Alice off to the front gates of the palace. Dan gave his friend a thumbs up. "Good luck on your exam, Alice!"

"Stay strong, Alice! I'll be waiting for the good news!" Marucho added.

Runo hugged the redhead tightly. "Make your dreams come true!"

"Thanks, everyone!" Suddenly, a patrol guard asked for all exam takers to follow him. "I need to go now. See you all in a few days!"

Behind another patrol guard were Spectra and Sellon, who watched every exam taker that walked past the gates. "Spectra, why are we here again?" the female assistant asked.

"To keep an eye on Alice Gehabich. Per Hydron's request, all four of us need to proctor the herbalist exams with the other proctors. However, we can't do anything else until Hydron gives more orders."

Sellon shrugged and looked beyond the crowd. "I see Shun Kazami. What about him?"

"Today's his first day of work, so we shouldn't bother him, but watch him carefully as well."

"Of course."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

 _Why are there no coordinates in the book to locate the next ring...?_

"Hello? Dan? You awake? You alive?"

"What the—" The brunette fell out of his chair and saw a teal bluenette standing near him. "Runo, you scared me. What are you doing here? Where's everyone else?"

"They all left the building to take a break. I brought food with me. I know you're not the type of person to abandon your work and eat somewhere else."

"Wow, thanks Runo." Dan untied the plastic bags and opened the takeout boxes to reveal curry fried rice, pasta, and bubble tea. "So extravagant..."

"Of course it's extravagant! Yet almost every college student eats this at some point." Runo grabbed a cup of bubble tea and stabbed a straw. "Now that I think about it, I miss our high school and college days where we met most of our closest friends."

"I met you in kindergarten and attended the same school all the way to high school. I guess college is when everyone makes their important life decisions."

"There's nothing wrong with attending culinary school."

"I wish you could say that about my decision to pursue archaeology. By the way, how are your parents doing? I haven't seen them in person since... **forever**. Surprisingly, we didn't see them when visiting their hometown."

"My parents are doing well, still managing the diner. Culinary school isn't cheap. What about your parents? Is your mom still staying at home?"

"Not really. She met some nice people at the park or wherever during her morning exercises and somehow became a personal trainer for them. Dad's still working his office job. What I'm really concerned about is Shun. He's been missing for so long, and even the police have no leads. His mom went back to her hometown for Mid-Autumn. I don't know how to tell her."

"I think Shiori-san would've noticed something by now, given that Shun hasn't contacted anyone. Unless...he **has** been contacting her but not us? That makes no sense, especially since someone is targeting everyone that works here because of the metal box. Speaking of Shun...didn't he bring us together in high school?"

"You mean 'hook up'?"

"NO, I DO NOT!"

"Shun's not here, so I can say that all I want! With or without his help, I think we would've achieved what we have between us anyway."

"Care to elaborate on what's 'between us' in the first place?"

"All right. **You** asked for it."

Idle chat soon became a playful argument, until somebody entered the workroom unexpectedly. "What are you two doing...?"

The brunette and bluenette faced the front doors and saw the mint-haired intern. "You didn't see anything."

Ace tried to contain his laughter and waved his hands in self-defense. "You're free to argue all you want. I just need to get my flash drive from—"

Somebody entered the lobby and pressed the bell on the front desk for service. "What now?" Dan complained. "Actually, I haven't heard anyone use the service bell in a long time. It's probably someone unfamiliar if they don't call our names on the first try."

"Let me get it. I'm closer to the door." Ace made his way out and saw a familiar auburn-haired girl standing in the waiting room. "Mira?! Long time no—"

"—see. So what?" she answered coldly.

Taken aback by the guest's unwelcoming attitude, Ace then asked, "What are you doing here? I thought you said you'd never get involved with anything archaeological."

"I know, but I'm still the sister of your biggest sponsor."

Dan and Runo reached the front lobby and were surprised to see Mira as well. "Mira, what are you doing here?" they asked.

Ace continued asking, "Are you going to waste our time or what?"

Mira unlocked her phone and showed the others a message. "Keith wants to hold a meeting in one hour. **Don't** be late."

The brunette sighed and scratched his head. "I should pack my stuff before calling Joe and Marucho."

"I'll stay here and watch everything," offered Runo as she walked back with the brunette.

As Mira pulled her phone back, Ace approached her and whispered, "You came all the way here to tell us in person that your brother wants to hold an urgent meeting? Don't you think that's a waste of your time?"

"Justkeeping personal issues separate from professional matters. See you later." Without another word or even looking back, the auburn-haired guest left the building.

Ace clenched his fist tightly and tried to control his temper. _Mira, what's gotten into you? You're a complete stranger to me now._

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Shun returned to the Gehabich residence after work and saw a stack of papers on the coffee table. "Dr. Michael, do you need help with filling prescriptions?"

"Shun? You're back?" asked Alice's grandfather with surprise. "You don't need to stay in the palace?"

"Right now, the workload isn't too heavy to the point of staying their palace overnight. I can help with—"

"No need to work on this, Shun. I nearly forgot that the herbalist exam takes multiple days and requires overnight stay in the palace. Leave the prescriptions to me. I need to check on Joe again, so watch the house while I'm away."

"All right. Be safe." The raven-haired youth brought his papers upstairs to work on. _All the maps from the palace archives are outdated. Some of the landmarks on the most recent map don't even exist anymore._

He opened more folded maps, but then stopped slowly. The house was so silent, and Shun wasn't used to it. _This is weird. I have no one to talk to._

"Alice?!"

The raven-haired youth snapped out of his trance and looked over the balcony to see a pigtailed bluenette. "Runo, she's not here."

"Shun? What are you doing here?"

"I'm...uh..." Unsure of what Alice told Runo about him, he improvised. "I'm watching the house. Alice's herbalist exam will take a couple days, and Dr. Michael just left to visit a patient."

"Oh yeah. Alice's exam started this morning. I thought she was still here because the lights were on."

"Sorry, it's just me. What are you doing here?" Shun went downstairs and opened the doors for Runo. "Come inside. It's cold out there."

"Thanks." The bluenette took a seat as the raven-haired youth prepared tea. "I was just walking around since Dan will be away for a retreat with his army colleagues. You sure know your way around the house, Shun."

"As a clinic assistant, sometimes I have to come here and pick up random things," he lied. "It's weird being here alone. I wonder how Alice is doing. Even though the civilian exam is simpler than the palace exam, the overall criteria is way different than my exam."

"This isn't Alice's first time trying out for exams, actually..."

Shun looked up. "Say what?"

Runo held her cup of tea tightly, despite it scalding her hands. "Every time the palace staff announce that exams are coming soon, Alice always grabs an herbalist application, but never turns in the form. I'm surprised that she submitted it this time."

"Alice waited this long? Why wouldn't she pursue what she wanted right away?"

"Don't be fooled by her cheerful image. Alice used to close herself off from others and drown herself in work from the clinic. I've never seen her been so open or happy before."

"I can't imagine her like that at all."

"Maybe you're the reason why she's changed."

The raven-haired youth stopped sipping his tea. _I haven't met Alice for long, yet it feels like I know her so well._ "At least it was for the better. I'm glad she went through the change, because I wouldn't have met all of you, who all remind me a lot of my friends back home."

"You're not from here?! I couldn't tell!"

 _Did Alice_ _ **really**_ _tell nobody that I'm not from here?_ "It's a long story. My hometown is far away, but meeting all of you makes me feel much better." An owl hooted outside, and Shun noticed the full moon. "It's getting late. I could walk you home."

"I'm fine, Shun. My house is really close by. Just stay here and watch the house for Alice."

 _For Alice...of course. That's all that I do now._ He escorted the bluenette outside and said, "Stay safe, Runo."

Shun went back upstairs and saw the mess he made on the dining table. _I have so many maps to remake for the palace and so many plants to learn about before Alice comes back. How am I supposed to finish everything?_

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Joe and the interns entered Keith's office and sat around the oval meeting table. Keith turned around from his swivel chair and greeted everyone. "I assume Mira told you why you're here."

The lead archaeologist replied, "Keith, I know this is a bad situation for all of us, but we just need a few more weeks to wrap up the work at hand."

"Joe, I know you're in a hurry, but with the archaeological site damaged severely and other unexplained murders occurring, I have no choice but to stop sponsoring. I have colleagues and shareholders who have backed out because of this bad publicity. Please don't make it hard for me."

Dan hit the table with his fist. "I don't get it, Keith. Why back out now? Just because unexpected thieves destroyed our most 'expensive' site ever that Joe spent months to receive approval on? All you're doing is cutting ties when we need help the most."

"Dan, there are many factors in this. Being invaded by thieves has a very negative impact on sponsors because we're basically losing money. Adding the murders on top of this only worsens the situation. As far as I know, the police still have no leads on the thieves, murders, or even where Shun is. Joe, your team is disorganized, but you did say that you have a lot of work at hand. Therefore, I will sponsor enough to finish the last bits and pieces. After that, you all need a break. We'll talk again after the tension dies down. Meeting dismissed."

Seeing that Keith already planned everything out for the archaeology team, everyone left immediately, except for Ace. "Mira, I thought you said you wouldn't be involved in archaeology again. Why waste your time standing behind your brother's chair to watch us?"

"Didn't you hear what Keith said? The meeting is **dismissed**." With nothing else to say, Ace finally left with the others. As usual, Mira didn't bother looking.

"I never thought you'd act that way around your friends, especially around Ace." Keith stretched his arms and poured a cup of water from the dispensing machine. "Water?"

"Just to be clear..." Mira grabbed the cup, but tossed the water onto the carpet and threw the crumpled paper cup at her brother. "You made me do it."

After his sister left, Keith tossed the crumpled cup in the trash can. _You're still a long way from growing up, Mira._


	12. Borderline Tenacity

The final day of herbalist exams was dedicated to the interactive field test. Test takers were each assigned to a different greenhouse in the palace and told to monitor the flora for the entire day until the next sunrise. Alice's assigned greenhouse was the most transparent, with almost all walls and roofs made of glass. She logged all activity into her testing notebook every fifteen minutes and when something major happened.

After rearranging the irrigation, the redhead observed the rare plants that she rarely saw out in the open. _I'm not surprised that palace staff can afford to grow rare plants under artificially controlled conditions._ Although she knew about various rare plants from books and other records, this was her first time seeing some in person.

The plant that caught her attention was the most was a tall stem with axial flowers from base to tip and a decent amount of leaves at the base. Different plants had different flower colors, ranging from solid purple to spotted white. "These are foxgloves! The entire plant is poisonous and not suitable for self-medication, but Grandfather would know what to do." _That also means a fine line between living and dying..._

Alice looked up and saw the full moon. _I wonder what everyone else is doing._ _I've never been away for so long. Shun's probably not used to being alone either. Did he report to work yet?_ After making sure that nothing else had problems, she went to sleep on the improvised bed that the administrators provided.

The next morning, Alice woke up to the sunlight and checked the greenhouse one more time before signing off her notebook. Someone opened the door and asked, "Are you Alice Gehabich?"

The redhead faced the blond man at the door. "Yes, I am. You are?"

"My name is Spectra. I work for Prince Hydron, but that's not important. You've been disqualified."

"What?!" Alice dropped her notebook and ran up to Hydron's assistant. "But why?! It would've saved me all this time here if I had known that I failed—"

" **In** addition to being disqualified, you must see Prince Hydron immediately. Ladies, help me out here." No matter how much Alice flight fought back, Sellon and Zenet subdued the girl and took her outside. "Anubias, we need to post announcements on the bulletin board first."

"I'm just waiting for you."

In the market square, the two men glued papers onto the bulletin board quickly before returning to the palace. Both Shun and Dan had the day off and came to check results. The raven-haired youth focused on herbalist roster, while the brunette saw another announcement and screamed. "The army is having another draft!"

"Aren't you in the army already, Dan?"

"Yeah, but the need for a draft means that there will be an **urgent** battle coming **soon**!"

"Oh...I didn't know that." However, Shun couldn't find what he wanted. "Dan, can you read this for me? I don't see Alice's name."

"Sure." After Dan calmed down from reading the draft announcement, he read the results of the herbalist exam and frowned. "I don't see Alice either. Maybe they didn't post all the results yet."

"That's impossible—" Shun felt someone tapped his should and turned around. "Chris, Soon, what is it?"

"There's another body," the short blond whispered. "We also heard that you don't see Alice's name."

"I'm worried about what happened. I want to stay and wait, but now there's another dead body." He thought about what to do and told Dan, "I need to go. Let me know when you see Alice."

"I'll let everyone know when I see her."

Shun followed Chris and Soon to a remote area in the hills. "Do either of you have pen and paper? Alice took her notepad with her."

Soon took out a fountain pen and napkin. "Use this for now. We'll try to memorize everything as well."

"Thanks." With a branch, Shun pulled the female victim's clothing away at the neck, wrists, and ankles. "Nothing new, but her palms have weird cuts." He touched the bizarre marks and began seeing things.

 _A woman was gagged and tied to a chair that rested in front of a desk. All windows were closed. The only source of light was the oil lamp on the desk. Someone walked over and took a seat._

 _The person laid a book on the desk and flipped through a few pages. Upon reaching the desired page, the person took out a brush pen, a bowl of ink, and blank pieces of paper. The person began copying text from the book onto the blank paper._

 _After finishing all pages, the person waved them dry before whispering something. The person spread the papers on the desk and took out a small blade. Approaching behind the woman, the person cut into the woman's palms as she screamed in agony._

"What was he doing?!" screamed Shun as he exited the vision. He stared at his own hands, which were perfectly fine. "It seemed like the killer tortured this victim by etching symbols into her palms. I remember what each symbol looked like, but—"

He collapsed as the girls held him up. "Soon, we should take him back. This isn't working as well with Alice gone."

"I agree, Chris. Let's hope Dr. Michael is home, if Alice still isn't."

Upon returning to the Gehabich residence, Michael saw the trio and gasped. "My goodness, what happened to him?"

"It's a long story, but part of Shun's condition has to do with not seeing Alice on the results list or in person," Chris explained.

"If there's nothing else, then we'll leave now," Soon added.

"Thank you very much. Have a good day." Michael carried Shun to the living room chairs. "I don't know what happened with Alice's exam, but your health is more important."

 _He doesn't know about us investigating the murders, my headaches, or the situation with Hydron._ "Thanks, Doctor. I was extremely concerned when the results didn't have Alice's name. There's no way that she failed. Plus, there's another draft."

"I know my granddaughter the best, and sometimes she becomes very stressed out. Anyway, you're in no condition to work. This herb infusion water should relieve your pain and aid with sleep."

After Michael returned to work, Shun drank the infused water and felt the effects immediately. He entered the guest room and fell easily onto the bed. _Alice, what happened? What did Hydron do to you?_

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"Why is this still so difficult?!"

Dan fell back into his swivel chair and spun around before feeling dizzy. Runo sat a meter away and sighed. "Maybe we can retrace our steps."

"What does that mean?"

"Think about it. You all know where to search next because Marucho, Ren, and I each memorized different lines of a poem that contained specific words and yielded coordinates when used in conjunction with the medicine book. We need to look back at all the poems and find a pattern."

Dan turned on his laptop, which he then connected to the projector. He opened an empty word document and typed out the six lines of poetry that they were aware of. "I did exactly what you told me to do. What's there to look at?"

Marucho and Fabia entered the workroom as they were greeted by Runo. "Welcome back! But where's Ace?"

"I asked if he needed a ride, but he's taking the day off instead," Fabia explained. "Maybe he's still upset about Mira. What are you two doing?"

Dan rolled his eyes. "Mira annoys me at times—but enough about her. Runo suggested that we analyze the poems that we have in a brute-force attempt to find coordinates."

"Sounds reasonable." Marucho pulled the metal box closer to himself. "How did we miss this earlier? Inside each slot on the remaining faces of the box is a symbol etched inside. We could've known which slot was for which ring this way, instead of performing trial-and-error. Dan, can you help translate the remaining symbols?"

The brunette retrieved a digital camera and took photos while Marucho fixed other technical difficulties. "What do we have, Marucho?"

"The other two symbols mean 'earth' and 'fire'. So far, we have five elements—water, light, darkness, earth, and fire. They may be the same elements that the first line in the poem is talking about."

"Even if the second line means nothing new, the remaining space on the map's legend box suggests six more lines, which means **six** total elements."

Runo shrugged. "Maybe the sixth line is a closing phrase, like a concluding paragraph in an essay."

Marucho highlighted certain words in the other lines. "Dew is water. Sunlight is light. Shade is darkness. Soil is earth. We found different prescriptions with the words dew, sunlight, and shade, but neither 'soil' nor 'tree' exist in any prescription. Therefore, we should find a prescription with words that relate to fire. Everyone, start shouting words so I can record them."

"Flame!"

"Flare!"

"Blaze!"

"Burn!"

"Kindling!"

"Ember!"

...and the list went on.

Eventually, the blond intern became overwhelmed and stopped everyone. "I think we have enough words now. Time to look in the medicine book. Dan and I will search in the paper book starting on the first page. Runo and Fabia can search in through the scanned images on starting on the last page."

After nearly an hour of searching, Runo screamed, "This prescription uses the word 'ember'! The concoction on this page is sensitive to heat, so preparing it requires extremely good technique. Here are the coordinates."

Dan marked the next destination map but flinched. "Runo, is your idea of extrapolation working? The coordinates you told me are in the middle of a body of water—ironic for the owner of the fire ring."

"Dan Kuso, are you doubting me?! Finding **something** is better than nothing!"

Marucho reclaimed the laptop and superimposed a modern map over the scanned image of the ancient map. "Based on today's geography, those coordinates land on the edge of a peninsula. This is our only lead. We'll go there tomorrow morning."

Dan walked up to Runo and whispered, "Since you're so good at solving mysteries, maybe you should permanently transfer here."

"And face you every day? No thanks! I see you enough already on a daily basis. Without my idea, you wouldn't get anywhere."

"And without me saying so, you wouldn't be allowed to stay here with us. Also, finding the next step seemed way too easy. This secret isn't very well kept."

"Well, maybe only **smart** people like the ring guardians know better when it comes to solving the secret that's been kept for years. Therefore, you owe me a thank-you and—"

Suddenly, the brunette's phone rang. "Hi Joe. Thanks for saving me from a yelling lunatic."

"Uh...you're welcome? Anyway, Ace just told me that he wants to take the next few days off. I'm finally free now, so maybe I can help out in his place."

"Sweet! More help is better! I don't understand what's between him and Mira anyway. This is a great time for him to reflect. Let me tell the others that you're coming..."

The brunette walked off to the other work rooms, leaving the bluenette behind. "Thanks for leaving me alone here, Dan!"

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"Let me go!"

Sellon and Zenet dragged Alice to Hydron's personal room, where he sat in his seat and played with a fountain pen. "Miss Alice, good to see you again."

"Prince Hydron, I don't understand why I was disqualified for reason."

"Are you really playing that trick on me? I warned you before."

"About **what**?"

"Either you agree to marry me and **keep** your herbalist title, or..." He took out a dagger from the pen container and played with it using both hands. "...you face an immediate death."

Alice stared at the bladed weapon carefully. _Shun said he saw a flash of silver in his visions. Could this dagger be the weapon? But how would I test Hydron out?_ Then she remembered how nobody in the royal palace sent help to the natural disaster in Chan's hometown. "I refuse to marry someone who doesn't care about the life or death of his subjects."

Zenet gasped, but Sellon slapped the redhead's face without doubt. "How dare you say that to Prince—"

"Sellon, take it easy," Hydron halted. "Miss Alice, something about what you said makes me think that this is more than just about the wildfires that happened on a piece land of my interest."

The redhead trembled, not expecting Hydron to reply that way. "Do you realize that people are dying brutally elsewhere in here? I won't agree to anything until you agree to investigate."

"Is that it? I really have no idea about what you're talking about, but I'll ask my personal staff to look into it." The female aides glanced at Hydron surprisingly, but Hydron stood up and yelled toward the back of the room. "Spectra, Anubias, please send Miss Alice home!"

"Yes, Prince Hydron," they answered before leading Alice to a carriage outside. They soon arrived at the Gehabich residence, but before letting the redhead off, Anubias warned, "Better listen to Prince Hydron, or else your friends and family will suffer."

"Suffer **how**?"

Spectra walked up to his colleague and answered, "I'm sure you don't want Shun Kazami drafted into the army for the upcoming war. He **did** just become the new land surveyor, after all." After more subtle snickering, they finally let Alice go home.

The house was very clean. On the coffee table was a note from Dr. Michael. _Grandfather went to see Joe since I went to take the exam...that I didn't even pass. She_ walked down the hallway quietly and saw Shun's room door slightly open. _Shun's asleep already? Better not wake him then._

From her sleeves and interior coat pockets, the redhead took out rare herbs she picked from the greenhouse. _Sleep aids, heart medicine, decongestants...thank goodness Hydron's assistant didn't confiscate all this. Anything can be toxic at a certain dosage—_

"What are you doing?"

Alice gasped and dropped the plants on the ground. "Nothing! Shun, I thought you were asleep."

"You didn't realize that you were talking yourself so loudly?"

She shook her head.

"Well, I wasn't sleeping well anyway. Your name wasn't on the results list, and none of us could find you until now. What happened?"

"I didn't pass."

"You're lying." They stared at each other silently until Shun continued. "Based on your skill and determination, there's no way that you'd fail."

"Okay, fine! I was **disqualified**. Happy now?"

"Disqualified? For what reason? There's a difference between that and failing, you know." Alice turned the fire off and sat on the ground at the edge of the cabinet with her head on her arms. Shun realized the problem and sat next to her. "It's Hydron, isn't it?"

"I thought that after the greenhouse field test, everything would be fine. Instead, Hydron's assistants said that I was disqualified for no reason and dragged me over to see Hydron. He said as long as I agree to marry him, I could keep my herbalist title. Otherwise, I would face immediate death. I threatened him back about the recent dead bodies and the fire in Chan's hometown, but he either didn't know at all or was denying everything. He also threatened to hurt my friends and family if I said no, especially by drafting you into the army. What did I ever do wrong?"

"That's not fair at all." He pulled her in closer for a hug as she cried in his shoulder. _Maybe now's not a good time to tell her about the symbols I saw in the most recent vision._ "Don't take it too hard. There will always be alternatives."

"There are no alternatives. Hydron's serious about this. How do I tell everyone that I was disqualified because he wanted me to marry him? If you didn't believe my lie, then the others won't either." The redhead sat back and wiped her eyes. "But I value life too much to give up right now. I'll think of something."

"Anything that won't ruin your well-being is worth considering."

Alice stood up and turned the fire on again. She tasted the concoction and decided what changes were needed. _It's getting there. I just need more time...which I don't have._ "Shun, did you find any bodies while I was gone?"

"Um...there was one, but the vision was so weird that my head hurts every time I try to reimagine it."

"That's unfortunate. You shouldn't stress yourself out too much, either."

"Maybe I don't see anything when you're gone," he lied.

The redhead sighed and stirred the pot. _I wish that won't ever happen again..._

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"There's no one here!"

Dan may have controlled his temper about driving, but the others sighed as they saw the fruitless result of pursuing an unofficial lead. Runo tapped the GPS screen a few times before giving up. "Let's walk around. Staying inside won't help."

Everyone got off and admired the surprisingly peaceful atmosphere. Even the bay water was calm. The brunette approached the shore and enjoyed the sea breeze. "If only our lives were as peaceful right now..."

The pigtailed bluenette walked up next to him. "We've been trying to solve the metal box for so long that we haven't had time to find Shun. His mom left me a text message. I don't know how to answer her."

"Shiori-san let me voicemails, too. I don't think I can lie to her anymore, either. I can't believe I'm not doing more to find my best friend."

"Dan, we all know how you feel," Joe empathized. "Upon first look at Shun, I could tell he was a hardworking person and knew how to prioritize. That's why I put him, you, Marucho, and Fabia together as my closest interns."

Fabia nodded. "I still remember when other students looked down on me for being a girl who wanted to pursue archaeology. Shun wasn't like them, and he even lent me his study materials. My final GPA was just above average, but at least I made it into the program."

"Shun helped me a lot too," Marucho agreed. "I skipped a couple of grades prior to college, so a lot of older peers in college despised me as well. My final GPA was in the top ten percent."

"I hate to say this, but what if opening the metal box is the **only** way to find him?" Dan asked, stirring questions in everyone's minds. "Ace and I saw the footage from Shun's dashcam. The video ended when he placed the phoenix pendant into the box, but I don't see a huge slot like that at all on on—"

Suddenly, something crashed loudly behind Joe, who turned around in shock. "A kite? That means there's someone else here." Later, a tall girl with indigo hair tied in a ponytail and wearing a red dress approached the kite. "Chan?! I thought you were still in China! Long time no see!"

"I'm glad to be back, Joe." The two friends shook hands before the Chinese girl picked up her kite. "Dan and the others are here, too. How did you know that my vacation cabin is here?"

"Vacation cabin?!" the others exclaimed.

Chan laughed softly and continued talking. "After high school, I went back to China as an international college student, in hopes of reconnecting with my roots. I'm on break right now, so I came to Bayview to pass time. My family has owned the vacation cabin for years. I'll take you all there right now. It's just at the top of that short cliff."


	13. Nothing Short of Surrender

While walking through palace hallways, Shun finished drawing the symbols he saw in previous visions. _The bodies we found were killed indoors before being dumped outside. Since I also saw Hydron, it's likely that the primary crime scene is in the palace. But where would I go to identify these symbols?_

Footsteps echoed in the hallway, prompting the land surveyor to hide behind a pillar. A patrol guard told his colleague, "Can you believe that there's a bad case of moths in the library? **No one** will address the problem!"

"Not as bad as the cockroaches in the kitchen," the friend sympathized. "Maybe our supervisors think that books aren't as important as food."

 _That's right... The palace library should have archives of everything._ Shun sneaked through more hallways before arriving at and entering the palace library. Given that one portion of the palace scholar exam took place today, all librarians went out to proctor the exams. This library was organized in no way familiar to him or similar to modern day libraries, making Shun spent way too much time. _I need to return to work in the afternoon, and this isn't helping me._

He sighed. _I promised Alice that I'd do anything I can to help her predicament. Can't give up so easily..._

After searching through many books on ancient symbols, the raven-haired youth finally found a copy that defined the symbols he drew. _I hope what I drew is correct and accurate._ He skimmed through the definitions and translations briefly, but gasped. _**That's**_ _what the symbols mean? Did I draw something wrong or forget a symbol?_

Suddenly, someone opened the door, prompting Shun to hide again as usual. Hydron's four closest aides stepped inside, with Spectra speaking first. "Luckily, Hydron didn't need our help in proctoring today, so we can split up and get more work done."

"He told me to fix the kitchen infestation," Zenet explained. "Out of **all** things."

"Hydron wanted me to investigate the bizarre deaths that Alice Gehabich mentioned last time," Anubias also explained.

Sellon shrugged. "Looks like you're alone this time, Spectra."

 _What are they talking about?_ Suddenly, a moth landed on Shun's face. He brushed the insect away but accidentally tapped a shelf softly. _No kidding about the moth infestation..._

"Did you hear something?" Zenet asked.

"Could be the moths," Spectra recalled. "I just remembered that I had other issues to tend to right now. When you're all done, we should meet up go **there** together. Four people are more threatening than one."

"Of course," the other three answered while rolling their eyes.

All four eventually left, and Shun finally stepped out of his uncomfortable hiding spot. _What are they planning? I doubt Hydron is serious about investing the dead bodies, but I can't be sure if he killed them or not._

He walked a few shelves and encountered a shelf of a record books. _My name's in here. In present day, Joe previously excavated scrolls of many officials' names. I need to erase my name, but when?_

Shun passed on the idea and returned to work. After getting of today's shift, he returned to the Gehabich residence, but the front door was open. _That's not a good sign._ "Alice?! Dr. Michael?! Is everything all right?"

No answer.

The raven-haired youth stepped inside and looked everywhere. _Alice's grandfather is probably at the clinic._ No one was on the first floor, so he went upstairs. There, he saw Alice sitting at the edge of the balcony. "Alice, get back here! It's dangerous! How did I not see you from downstairs when—"

"I'm going to marry Hydron."

Shun stopped running and stood in place. "What did you say?!"

"You heard me. I'm going to—"

He grabbed her hand and pulled her off the balcony. Alice tried pulling away, but Shun's grip was too tight. "You can't give up your happiness to protect the rest of us from nonexistent danger. I won't let you do that."

Seeing that resisting was impossible, the redhead buried her face in the raven-haired youth's chest and cried. "They came and threatened me... **again**. They also visited Grandfather's clinic and made a mess, which is why he isn't back yet. What do I do?"

"Please don't cry..." was all Shun could say. _So this was what the four of them were planning in the library._ "We'll think of something. We can't keep this a secret anymore now that they threatened your grandfather as well."

"Shun...save me."

 _I want to, but how?_

"Alice, are you home?" asked a female voice. Shun and Alice looked over the balcony and saw Chris at the door and Soon walking over. "I know it's dark, but we found another body."

"Hold on," the raven-haired youth ordered. He wiped Alice's face and asked, "Are you up for this? If not, I can go with them."

"I'm fine, Shun. I started investigating all this, so I should go too."

"If you insist." Shun held out his hand, much to the redhead's confusion. "Let's go."

"Thanks, Shun." She held his hand tightly and descended the stairs to follow their guests.

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

The Lee family's vacation cabin was very well decorated inside, as if it were a primary residence rather than a temporary residence. While the others sat around the coffee table, Joe watched Chan's every movement as she finished the painting at hand in the living room. "When did you begin pursuing art?"

"As a student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts, I need to take many foreign language and fine arts classes. While studying in China, I decided to study Chinese artwork as well, starting with watercolors." The Chinese girl washed her brush and relocated the easel in to the balcony. "I spent hours painting the scenery outside. It's finally done."

As Chan returned with hot tea and cups, Dan looked around as asked, "Why did your parents buy a vacation cabin here? It's very close to the bay and gets so foggy and cold."

"My ancestors lived in this area years ago. I'm not one-hundred percent ethnic Chinese based on a DNA test, actually. My parents told me that our ancestors came here because wildfires destroyed their hometown. Although life here was much better, some descendants returned home while others stayed. Those who stayed were my direct ancestors. My parents claimed that our direct ancestors stayed because they would rather face flood than another wildfire. Pretty funny, huh?"

"Since you've been here for a long time, maybe you can help us with something." Joe discreetly told the others to retrieve the metal box from Dan's car. "We're working on an archaeological project right now, and—"

"Are you working this hard because you were appointed to lead archaeologist? Or because you want to prove yourself?"

"Chan, what does that mean?"

"I know you've had mixed feelings about being appoint, but no matter what other people think, you're in control of yourself."

The lead archaeologist sighed and turned away. "My mom told you that, didn't she?"

"I'm still your childhood friend. When your mom stepped down because of health issues, people were quick to fight for that spot. Nobody expected her to appoint her own son. I know you don't want to be reminded of that, but don't let it hold you back."

"Seeing and talking to you again makes me feel better already. Yes, I work this hard to prove that I'm worthy of this position—with or without connections—which is why I want my team and me to solve this mystery as soon as possible. Chan, do these words mean anything to you?"

Joe repeated the poem that Ren recited a while back, but Chan shook her head. "I don't know what that means."

"Runo and Marucho each keep a portion of this large secret that pertains to an artifact we found. They think that the overall poem is split among many people to prevent the secret being exposed at once. If you know anything, please tell—"

"Sorry we're late! We got lost!" screamed Dan as they returned with the metal box. "Joe, are we allowed to tell Chan about—Runo, what are you doing?!"

The pigtailed bluenette had tripped and fell forward. "Dan Kuso, you don't just stop in the middle of the hallway and not move on!"

Marucho and Fabia hurried inside and helped Runo up. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine, but Dan isn't. He needs to—" Suddenly, she twitched her arm and gasped. "Where's my bracelet?! It was just here!"

Chan stepped forward and felt something on her shoe. She picked it up and noticed three empty rings strung together. "Be right back."

"Chan, are you okay?" Joe asked.

The Chinese girl hurried into her room and returned with a Chinese silk pouch, which she poured out a red ring out of. "I've never heard of the poem that you just said, but I do have a ring. What happened to the ornaments on these three rings?"

"The ornaments go on this metal box." Runo snatched the box from Dan and handed it to Chan. "Trust me and Marucho. Even Ren gave us his ring. Put yours in."

"Wait! Let me translate!" Dan took a picture of Chan's ring and ran it through the translation software. "It's Ancient Vestroian for 'fire', all right. Runo, I really need to thank you for your idea. Even though we couldn't locate the earth ring yet, at least your brute force led to the fire ring."

"That's because the secret-keepers know best, Dan." Runo watched Chan fit her ring ornament into one of the slots. The detailed slivers illuminated with red light, followed by a clicking sound. "Four down, one to go. Chan, I'm curious. What poem did your parents made you memorize? Because part of what Marucho memorized is in what I memorized, and after me is Ren."

"The thing about my couplet is that it's the **end**. That's what my parent said their ancestors told them. But here goes..."

 _While ember residues keep provide warmth each day_

 _Until the moment when all life blows away._

Dan snapped his fingers. "The word 'ember' **is** a part of the overall poem! But the other line sound depressing. Maybe it is the end?"

"It's not the end yet until we find the earth ring," Marucho reminded. "Also, I'm certain that no words in that other line are special enough to appear in the medicine book only once. We're still stuck."

Since solving the mystery of the box came to a stop, everyone talked about recently life events until it was time to return to the archaeology work building. Chan walked everyone back to Dan's vehicle. "It was nice seeing you all again. Maybe I'll visit central Bayview sometime. Goodbye!"

"Bye, Chan!" Everyone waved Chan goodbye before getting on Dan's car.

The brunette sat down first and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel, still thinking about the poem that Chan recited. "We have the whole poem, but not the final ring. What can we do?"

Runo looked at the side window, then turned around hastily. "Why are there so many cars around us just now?!"

Just as the brunette was about to make a rash decision to forcibly drive out, one driver of one vehicle lowered the window and shouted through a megaphone. "I suggest that you all stay put to avoid further altercations! Get off the vehicle!"

Even a motorboat arrived at the shore as Dan and the others got off the car while putting their hands up. From one enemy vehicle, a person in all black got off and approached the group of five. "Congratulations on achieving four of five rings. We have you cornered, so don't even think about retaliating. Mylene, Shadow, make sure all five of them are tied up and blindfolded. Sid, Lena, bring that metal box to our car."

"Yes, Boss," replied the four of them as the person in black took a seat inside the same vehicle again.

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"I never noticed this before..."

Despite working in the dark with dim lanterns, Shun noticed a striking difference on this female victim that previous victims didn't exhibit.

He held a lantern over the victim's arms and pulled the sleeves back with a branch. "See the red color and the flaked skin? Those are defensive wounds. She retaliated while the others didn't. What about the previous victims that I haven't seen?"

"We think they were drugged or knocked unconscious since we didn't see **any** of these on them before," Chris replied.

Soon carefully tilted the victim's head over. "No sign of trauma to the head or neck, so maybe she was drugged. If so, then the killer made a mistake of not using a strong dose."

 _Drugged? Subdued? Retaliated?_ Alice watched the others observe the body without speaking. _Maybe I can do the same too..._

Shun touched the victim's bruised and scratched arm and flinched before rubbing his eyes. "The killer is left-handed. He or she used their left hand to hit this woman after she fought back."

"How many left-handed people are out there, though?" Chris wondered.

"Focus on left-handed people near Hydron," Shun reminded. "That includes Hydron himself, but I can't tell because he switched hands so many times to hold his sword when he fought me. Alice, did you write that down?"

"Huh?" The redhead finally snapped out of her trance. "Sorry. I heard everything. I'll write it down now."

"Chris and I need to go home now," Soon explained. "See you two next time."

Now Alice was alone with Shun.

She was still taking notes slowly when he tapped her shoulder. "You haven't said a single word until I called you out."

"It's almost sunrise. I need to pick herbs soon."

Shun didn't realize that they spent unexpectedly long outside with the victim but was appalled by Alice's focus on other things. "Why are you even in the mood for that? Did you already forget that Hydron send his people to threaten you?"

"Shun, trust me. I have alternatives."

"Then tell me."

"I'm not sure if any of my ideas will work, but I need to restock our supply the herbs at home." The raven-haired youth refused to listen and turned away, but the redhead walked toward him and held his hand. "Spend as much time as possible with me now before things get worse."

"You know I won't say no." Shun pulled Alice in for a hug as the sun gradually rose and warmed up the air around them. "I'll do whatever it takes to save you from Hydron."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

Mira watched the workers move everything out of the main archaeology work building. "This wasn't supposed to happen, Keith, You said you'd stop sponsoring, but you didn't say you'd confiscate their work."

"Mira, listen to me. I gave them a deadline to finish everything before I cut the funding, but they didn't make it in time. A new archaeology division just started in another nearby city. Other sponsors and I were happy to give those guys a head start, so everything here will be given to them. Understand?"

"You could've told Joe or someone ahead of time about when you'll relocate everything. Did they even agree to this?"

"I sent them a letter, but they didn't reply by the notice date, so I thought they agreed." The auburn-haired girl faced away, but her brother wrapped an arm around her shoulder. "I know you're still upset that Father wouldn't let you pursue archaeology, but business is truly more useful."

"Why is **everything** determined by money and status?"

"Excuse me?"

Mira turned away and brushed her brother's arm off. "You two did more than just stopping me from pursuing archaeology. You did everything you could to keep me away from Ace."

"I know Father might have thought that, but I never objected."

"Then why didn't you anything?"

"Do you think I could've stopped him? You know how he is. If there's nothing else to talk about, then—"

"Forget you." Mira walked away and called Ace's number, but it rang for a while before going to voicemail. _Don't tell me he blacklisted me._ She dialed again, but an automated reply immediately suggested that Ace's phone was off. _You_ _ **are**_ _avoiding me._ However, she realized something was wrong when calling Dan, Runo, Marucho, **and** Fabia also led to the same exact recording. "Keith, I forgot something at home. Can I take your car?"

"Just don't crash it."

Just when Mira was about to unlock the driver's door, a shadow casted over her and hit her unconscious before she could even turn around. The attacker pulled the face mask off and spoke into an earpiece. "Boss, I immobilized the auburn girl. What now?"

"Good work, Sid," replied a digitally-mixed voice. "Is there anyone else around?"

"Her brother brought people over to pack the artifacts and other stuff away. Don't we have most of the archaeology staff captured already?"

"That's all I needed to know. Take the girl to the place that I mentioned before."

"Yes, Boss."


	14. Motive Over Evidence

Shun watched Alice picked herbs from the earth in the hills and sighed. "Feeling better now?"

"Not really. I still don't understand why Hydron would do this. He could take in any girl he wants as concubine, but why me?"

"I still think it has to do with the dead bodies that we've been investigating, yet his behavior implies that he knows nothing. Also...I need to tell you something."

The redhead closed the lid of her basket and turned around. "About what?"

"Remember when the girls and I found a dead body while you were taking your exams? I saw weird symbols in that vision, but couldn't recall a clear image until now. I sketched the symbols down and went palace library later, but realized that..."

"Realized what? Shun, stop wasting—"

"...that the symbols mean 'blood' and 'rejuvenation' in ancient Vestroian."

Alice blinked nervously as blood and color drained away from her face.

"Your grandfather's book didn't have an entry for the 'rejuvenation' symbol, which is why I consulted the palace library. I don't know what it means, but in the vision, I saw someone draw these symbols out on paper."

"You know...I could try using a hypnotic drug on Hydron when I see him again to force him to confess—"

The raven-haired youth grabbed her arm tightly. "Alice, what makes you think that's a good idea?! Even if you wantto see Hydron now, how easily will they let you in? What if you won't be so lucky next time and can't come back?"

"Shun, I know you mean well, but we have no choice. We need to know if he's the one responsible."

"But we're **not** using your life as the key to getting close to him!"

Upon returning to the streets near the Gehabich residence, a patrol guard greeted Shun and reported, "Prince Hydron would like you to report to work right now to discuss landscaping and architectural plans for an upcoming project."

"This early?" The raven-haired youth glanced at Alice, who shrugged and told him to go. "What about you?"

"If he wants to talk to you, then I'm very unlikely to see him anytime soon. Do what you can, Shun."

"Fine. Stay safe, Alice."

Shun followed the patrol guard inside the palace to a stone courtyard, where the young prince sat at a stone table while enjoying tea. He looked up and saw his guests arriving. After dismissing the patrol guard, Hydron greeted his guest. "We meet again."

"You called me in so early to drink tea?"

"Nonsense! I have more important things to talk about." The prince stood up and sipped his tea loudy in front of Shun. "As you may now, my father—King Zenoheld—is not in the best health, which is why I've been overloaded with work lately. He and I have been brainstorming for a while about what his tomb should be like, but now we need your help in finalizing some changes. You're our new and only land surveyor, so I'll tell Spectra and the others to make you copies of documents soon."

The raven-haired stared back blankly. "So you called me over to tell me a short message that 'Spectra and the others' could've told me themselves?"

"What would **you** like to talk about, then?"

"Nothing."

Hydron lowered his cup of tea down and engaged in a staring contest with Shun. "Really? **Nothing**?"

"I need to go—"

"You're not a bit concerned at all that I still insist on taking Miss Alice in as my concubine?"

"What do you expect me to say?"

The prince slammed his teacup on the stone table. "Shun Kazami, I will have you drafted into the army by all means!"

Shun maintained his calm expression, despite knowing the dangers ahead. "Like I care."

"Do I need to threaten you with execution then?"

"Execution on **what** grounds?"

Now Hydron leaned in closer and whispered, "Having an affair with a royal concubine."

 _As ridiculous as that sounded, anything is possible under Hydron's orders._ "No one will believe that. Alice haven't even agreed to this yet."

"Like you said— **yet**. I'm sending people to get her right now, and don't you **dare** block it."

Shun glared intensely as Hydron refilled his tea and swirled the cup gently to cool off the liquid, completely ignoring his infuriated guest.

"What are you still doing here? You have work to do."

 _What was the purpose of this meeting? That wasn't productive at all._ Shun left the premises and was on his way back to the Gehabich residence when a huge crowd blocking the entire street. Even Chris and Soon came by to see the drama. "What are you two doing here?" he asked.

The wavy-haired girl pointed to people up front. "Some people from the palace arrived in front of Alice's house and blocked off the road. We can't go home this way, so we decided to watch."

"Wait, what?!" The raven-haired youth rushed forward, but patrol guards pushed the crowd back. "Alice, what are you doing?!"

With Sellon and Zenet watching her closely, the redhead exited her house and turned to the side after hearing the familiar voice. "Shun? You're back!"

"Are they taking you away already?!"

"I'll be fine," was all she said before boarding the carriage that Hydron's aides brought over.

"Alice! You can't leave!" screamed someone in the crowd.

"Prince Hydron is a bad person!" others exclaimed.

Previously, patrol guards prevented civilians from approaching the Gehabich house, but now the civilians prevented the all carriages from leaving the street. Sellon whispered to Spectra, "What do we do? This was not a part of the plan."

"Just force our way through the crowd. They should know better"

More people yelled, "Don't let Prince Hydron have his way!"

Another man shouted, "I would rather die than be drafted!"

"That's it!" All eyes faced Anubias as he drew his sword and sliced into the arm of that the person that just shouted. "One more word from the of you, and this blade will into **your** skin as well." Unfortunately, his threat lead to more bystanders forming a group to retaliate against Hydron's aides. "Spectra, what now?! They're not taking me seriously!"

"Kill them if you must. Our job is to execute Prince Hydron's orders no matter what gets in the way."

 _I can't believe this escalated so quickly after the four of them just came here yesterday. So far, Anubias isn't left-handed, but I don't know about the others._ While avoiding the rushing crowd to follow the carriages, Shun heard a familiar voice screamed in pain and stopped running. "Dr. Michael?! Where are you?!"

"Over...here..." replied the elderly man. Shun, Chris, and Soon all ran over to see Dr. Michael lying on the ground in front of an alley with blood on his clothes. "Please...save...Alice..."

The raven-haired youth continued asking. "What happened to you? What were you doing here?"

"I tried to stop them, but they wouldn't let Alice free. I don't understand what we did wrong..." Michael whispered. "They didn't need to stab—"

Chris freaked out after seeing the elderly man cough out blood. "He's getting worse! If that guy that complained about the draft **did** say anything more, I think would've suffered as well."

"Just stop!" Shun ordered. "You two need to take Dr. Michael back into the house and watch him. Apply pressure to stop his bleeding. Keep him awake and alive for as long as Alice is away."

"Where are you going, Shun?" Soon asked.

"Hydron went way too far today. I have unfinished business to take care of." For now, he could only watch the carriages return to the palace as the road laid with injured civilians and possibly some dead bodies. _Alice, just wait. I swear I'll get revenge if anything happens to you or your grandfather._

Alice looked out the back window as the view behind her faded into the distance. _I'm sorry, Shun. I had no choice. Please wait for me._ The carriage stopped soon after, and Zenet called from outside. "We're in the palace. Get off."

The redhead stepped off and walked silently to Hydron's private room with his aides watching her every move. Like last time, the prince was playing with pens at his desk. "Miss Alice, good to see you again. Have you made your decision yet?"

"Yes...I will marry you," she replied reluctantly. "That's all."

"Wonderful! I knew you wouldn't say no."

 _More like I_ _ **can't**_ _say no,_ thought Alice as she tightened her fists.

"Spectra, hand me that royal order. I need to fill in the blanks. All of you can leave afterwards." After handing a piece of parchment to Hydron, Spectra and the others left as the prince wrote a few words with a fountain pen before stamping the bottom corner with his royal seal.

Alice noticed a problem. _If Hydron isn't left-handed, then who else is?_

The young prince set his pen down and blew on the parchment gently to dry it. "Perfect! Alice, do you see this? You're officially—"

"Nice try, but I won't let you win so easily." From her sleeve, the redhead took out a folded packet of powder and was about toss the substance at Hydron, but someone barged inside quickly and knocked her out by hitting a blunt object onto her neck. "Who...did..."

The Vestroian prince previously scooted his seat back to avoid Alice's sneak attack and finally calmed down. "What an evil girl! I should've expected that coming because she accepted my demand so easily. Thank you for stopping her in time before she could kill me—"

Before Hydron could say his savior's name, he was also knocked out from a smack to the head, followed by hysterical laughter from the attacker filling the room.

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"Move it!"

With Dan and the others still blindfolded and tried up from last time, the kidnappers transported them elsewhere and now were shoving them forward into an abandoned water facility plant. After a long silence and inactivity, the brunette shouted, "Hello?!"

"Dan?" Runo replied first. "Are you near me? Where's everyone else?"

"Runo, you must be very close to me, but I still can't see," Marucho answered.

Fabia's groggy voice echoed nearby, followed by irregular footsteps. "That long drive and new car smell made me sick..."

"What are **you** guys doing here?!" Everyone else then gasped at the sound of Ace's voice. "I thought you went to the peninsula while I took the day off."

"We **were** at the peninsula, but got kidnapped and taken here," Joe answered. "Sounds like you got kidnapped, too. Isn't it weird that we can walk and talk freely to each other like this despite the ropes and blindfolds? Where did the kidnappers go?"

"Ummm..." Dan wondered for a moment and somehow loosened the rope that tied his wrists. "I'm free!" He untied the blindfold on his face and freed Runo next. "This is a miracle!"

"Dan, are you stupid?! Remember what I said about the thieves giving us the metal box back so that we can solve everything while they steal credit? Letting us free like this is another scam." Nevertheless, she helped the brunette free the others. "What is this place?"

"These look like water tanks to me," the lead archaeologist commented. "I actually don't know where in Bayview that has—shh!" Everyone else froze at Joe's sudden interjection. "Do you hear that?"

Faint wailing echoed in the distance. Fabia looked around pointed a few meters above her. "It sounds like someone is screaming from that direction."

After a long run through the water facility plant, the gang saw a young woman near an upper level water tank, gagged and tied to a metal pole. Ace gasped and ran upstairs first. "Mira, how did you get here?!"

"It's Mira?!" the others screamed.

The mint-haired intern untied the ropes and removed the cloth from the auburn-haired girl's mouth. They stared at each other silence before Ace closed in for a hug. "You have no idea how happy I am to see you."

"Ace..." Mira couldn't help but hug back as well. "Thanks for saving me, but...there are other important things."

"Are pushing me away again as usual?"

"No! This has to do with **all** of you!" She descended the stairs as Ace followed. "I don't know how any of us got here, but you need to hear this. Keith brought his employees to your work building and confiscated **everything**."

"What?!" the others all screamed.

Ace continued yelling. "Mira, are you **that** heartless to the point of sabotaging our work and then telling us that you did it to make us feel even worse?!"

"I tried to stop Keith, but he said he sent you all a memo about hurrying you guys up before some deadline. I know that none of you wouldn't ignore an important message like that, so I tried calling each of you earlier to double check." Mira displayed her phone's call log for all to see. " **None** of you answered. I wanted to drive to Ace's house to check on him, but I got hit unconscious."

"I went out and didn't hear your call on the first ring. I saw the missed call later and wanted to call back, but got hit unconscious too."

Marucho analyzed the Mira's call log carefully. "You called us all **after** we got kidnapped! No wonder nobody answered! Keith probably took everything away by now. This is all thanks to that no-good person in black..."

"Person in black? He brought me here too!" Mira gasped. She was about to continue talking when she saw the makeshift bracelet on Runo's hand. "Runo, what are you wearing?"

The bluenette quickly hid her hand. "Nothing."

"Since you did a good thing today, I'll explain," Dan answered. "We've been trying to solve the mystery of an artifact we found, and the decorations on Runo's bracelet are from the rings that we found from certain people. Each ring is associated with an element and a line in a poem. We **just** started making progress, which is why I'm **so** mad that Keith took everything away!"

"Ring...element...poem..." Mira repeated those words until she subconsciously blurted words out.

 _Coming from a tree grown where the fertile soil laid_

 _While ember residues keep provide warmth each day_

The others gasped upon hearing familiar words. "That's the line that Ren told us!" Fabia realized.

"And the next line is the one that Chan told us!" Joe also realized. "Mira, how do you know this?!"

The auburn-haired girl snapped out of her trance and nearly fell to the ground from a headache, if Ace hadn't caught her in time. "Mira, I'm sorry for screaming at you earlier. I thought—"

"I'm fine." Mira stood up on her own and told the others, "My mother made me memorize those two lines before she passed away."

The others gasped again, but Ace let go immediately and backed away with fury written all over his face. "I can't believe that the person who dropped archaeology and distanced herself from us is a guardian of one of the rings! Is this someone's sick joke?!"

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"That hurt..."

Alice opened her eyes and saw herself on the floor while tied up onto a chair in a dark room. _Who knocked me out? I was about to throw chili powder in Hydron's face when everything turned black._ The only thing she saw around her was basic furniture. The chair next to her had a leg with splintering wood. _Am I not in Hydron's room anymore? The furniture here isn't his style._

She crawled over and scratched the ropes that tied her hands against the exposed wood. Eventually, the rope ripped into threads and liberated her hands. A voice groaned from somewhere else in the room. "Who's there?!"

"Ouch..." The voice came from behind a desk in the distance. Alice stood up and walked across the floor slowly. "Help me..."

"Prince Hydron?!" Alice ran around the desk and kneeled next to him. The Vestroian prince suffered a bleeding wound in the abdomen. The area around him also exhibited blood smears violent. "You're injured! Is anyone here?! Please help—"

And then, she just remembered...

The redhead observed the prince's vulnerable condition and backed up. _Hydron started everything. He wouldn't investigate the bizarre murders or provide emergency aid. He made his aides kill civilians that stopped me from coming here. He even threatened to draft Shun into the army. Why should I save him?_

On the other hand, the Hippocratic Oath also came across her mind. _I applied to take the herbalist exam so that I could legally practice medicine and save people from poor health. Hydron's situation here makes him a patient, just like everyone else..._

Alice was about to walk away when Hydron grabbed her wrist very tightly despite his pain. "I know what you're thinking. You think you can abandon me when I'm injured. Don't forget that I signed and stamped the order that declares you as my royal concubine. Either you save me now and live to keep that title, or otherwise be buried **alive** with me in wherever I'll be—"

Hydron's face froze, and the redhead felt his hand loosening from her wrist. In a matter of seconds, the prince's eyes went white as his entire body fell back. "Prince Hydron, are you okay? Can you hear—"

"Is somebody in there?!" shouted a voice from outside before someone kicked the doors down. Spectra, Anubias, Sellon, and Zenet all entered the room and saw Alice next to Hydron's dead body. "What the...?"

"I didn't do it!" she argued. "We were both knocked out. Then I woke up to find him like this!"

Hydron's four aides gathered together to discuss secretly before Spectra announced their final decision. "As we can see, you are Prince Hydron's royal concubine according to the royal order on the table. Therefore, you will be buried together with his casket, regardless if you're the killer or not."

"But I didn't kill him! Where does it say on the royal order that I need to be—" Zenet and Sellon walked over and subdued Alice. "Let me go! First you take me here to see Prince Hydron, and now you say that I killed him?! There's no evidence!"

"We don't need evidence," Anubias answered. "We just need someone with motive."

Before the female aides took Alice outside, the masked blond lowered his head and whispered to the redhead, "You shouldn't have gotten involved in the first place, whether you wanted to not."

The redhead involuntarily left the room speechless and confused. _What did he mean by that? Did they kill Hydron and set me up?_ Then she noticed that Spectra carried his sword on the right side of his belt. _It's possible that he's left-handed, but I still don't know about the others. What's_ _ **their**_ _motive for wanting Hydron dead?_


	15. Agonizing Reunions

**_Reviews:_**

CookieDecor22 \- Nope, no one is surprised! Buying time to "arrest" Alice wasn't the main plan actually, but it set a lot of other things in motion. You can call their relationship whatever you want xD I have plans on how Ancient Vestroia will end up. Both conspiracies are still secrets for now. The interns still have one trick up their sleeve!

Sugar Spice Rush \- Yes, Hydron will disappear soon! More on who actually killed him will be revealed later. Speaking of contact, you'll see that soon! How the spies know about Mira's family secret is somewhat obvious but also hidden in plain sight. Yeah I think there's some curse or bad luck going on around Ace and Mira in just about everything I see...

Cup of Violet Tea \- "Messed up" in an understatement once the end is closer! Alice's motive may be too perfect and she ends up suffering this fate, but there's still a way for Shun to make something useful out of this.

cherry-tree-of-life \- Surprise! Hydron's gone but still has to drag Alice and everyone else into his mess. I wish it were only as simple as being tired of Hydron's endless orders. Don't worry about Mira. She's a strong girl, went through a lot, and always has backup plans.

ladyluck1668 \- For once, Hydron didn't do something for nothing, although the results were not desirable. Read on about Alice's grandfather. I think a lot of ancient civilizations didn't have official court trials and AND used rather extreme burial methods. Now we have modern science and technology. Caught you by surprise with the reunion, huh?! Oh it was definitely a sign alright. Mira's family is just...nope.

pretty pretty \- You'll understand what this "sorcery" is in a few more chapters! I might consider a separate story with actual magical powers. No guarantees. Yeah double standard still exists today... I know what you mean about Mira and her drama counterpart, but trust her judgment. For now, at least!

 **When Runo said "** **It doesn't work this way, Dan" and I said "If I were Dan, I'd say, 'So change the world'", that was a reference to an earlier season's episode of Leverage! Nobody guessed it, so I had to explain it here ^-^**

 **Anyway: pending death sentence AND an all-too-perfect escape plan, here we go!**

* * *

 **Chapter 15: Agonizing Reunions**

 **xXx**

"Prince Hydron has passed away!"

Shun accidentally made a huge inkblot on his map draft after hearing the patrol guard announcing the news from the watchtower. _I was_ _ **almost**_ _done with this final draft. Why does Hydron still ruin everything even when he's_ _ **dead**_ _?_

He circled the inkblot with malachite and wrote his annotations before setting the paper aside. The raven-haired youth exited his work tent and observed the area in front of the upcoming tomb instead. _Chris and Soon couldn't do anything to save Dr. Michael, but Alice still doesn't know about it. Hydron's death came as a surprise. What if Alice is next?_

"Shun, we need your help," a nearby patrol guard requested. "We're trying to set up some tents, but the spikes won't penetrate the ground."

"What tents?"

"You haven't heard? A royal order was made public, stating that Alice Gehabich has become Prince Hydron's royal concubine already. Since Prince Hydron is dead, it's customary for anyone he's married—including concubines like Miss Alice—to be buried with the prince's casket."

Shun dropped the ink brush in his hand. _Alice_ _ **is**_ _next..._

"Therefore, Prince Hydron's personal staff will bring her over and other workers here to stay overnight in the tents that we've failed to assemble for the past hour."

"One moment..." The raven-haired youth picked up his brush and wiped off the dust. "Go back to the tents. I'll help you as soon as possible after fixing some maps."

After the patrol guard left, Shun went back inside the work tent and stared at his most recent draft, then at the other older drafts on the ground. _I'm just trying to draw an accurate and legible map of what's inside Zenoheld's tomb. Are you telling me you don't want more copies to exist? Or should I commit this to memory for safekeeping?_

While walking to the staff resting area with the patrol guard, Shun came across some soldiers who were escorting a carriage in his direction. "Everyone, move out of the way!" demanded the soldier leading the entourage.

The person inside lifted a window curtain, revealing a familiar redhead's face. "Alice..." the land surveyor whispered.

She simply waved back as the carriage made a turn in another direction.

"Stop staring at the carriage!" shouted another patrol guard at the workers he oversaw. "All of us are working overtime for the next few days to so that we can properly bury Prince Hydron!"

 _Overtime? That means everyone will be here until at least midnight._ After helping the others install tents, Shun approached the patrol guard that called him earlier and noted, "Since we all have to work overtime, I'm going home to finish some errands before coming back."

"No problem. Please return quickly."

The raven-haired youth returned to the Gehabich residence but stood at the front door, afraid to walk in. _This place isn't the same to me anymore._ He was about to push open the door when the doors opened themselves. "Chris? Soon? Why are you here?"

"Please don't blame us for breaking into the house..." Chris begged.

"...but we want to help you all in in every way possible." Soon added.

Shun wiped his nose and nodded. "I understand. I owe you two a lot. Because Hydron died, I need to work overtime at the tomb to make sure everything is safe. Dinner is covered, but I need all the sedatives and sleep aids that are in the house right now. This is my last chance to save Alice."

"We'll help you with that!" the girls cheered.

"Also—if Dan, Runo, Marucho, and other people ask, just...tell them the truth. And, if there's another body, send me a signal in the air."

"All right, Shun..."

The sky darkened quickly, and the raven-haired youth returned to the temporary resting area outside of the tomb, where everyone lined up for dinner. "We ran out of water!" a chef reported. "Please fetch more from the well!"

"Got it!" replied a few patrol guards who soon left the premises.

 _Now's my chance to distract everyone..._

The patrol guards returned with more water, but after an hour work, everyone began feeling tired and took a break. The only awake person was Shun, who made sure that the tainted water never came near him. After confirming the tent guards were also sedated, he entered the main large tent.

Alice sat at a table with a plate of untouched food. "Shun?" She left the table and immediately hugged him, who warmly hugged her back. "How did you enter here past the guards?"

"I grabbed sedatives from the house and put them in the water, making sure that it only went to them and not us."

"You sure learned a lot from me."

"Which is why I need to take you away from here now."

The redhead let go and shook her head. "There's no escape. Spectra and the others said that if I'm not buried with Hydron's casket, then everyone that works here will be buried with him. I don't want to put this burden onto you all. Also, I think Spectra may be involved in the weird murders because he carries his sword on his right, which means he may be left-handed. Hydron is right-handed because I watched him write on the royal order. I don't know about the others."

"Hydron's dead, so that's one less suspect to think about. But what's Spectra's motive? I understand that 'blood' and 'rejuvenation' could be why the killer slashed the neck, wrists, and ankles for blood, but why Spectra? And how would the four of them benefit from Hydron's—"

"Shun..." Alice suddenly grabbed his hand as her eyes teared up. "I don't care what other people say, but I didn't kill Hydron. I was about to throw chili powder in his face after he stamped his seal, but I was knocked unconscious. I'm being framed."

"Alice, I trust you. Even though we haven't known each other for long, I know you well enough not to kill someone or neglect an injured person." He pulled her in for another hug, holding tight and not letting go. "Promise me you won't scream if I tell you something?"

"Tell me what?"

Shun sighed, thinking about how to phrase his thoughts. "Remember when Anubias waved his sword around at everyone when the four of them took you away?"

"Yeah?"

"Your grandfather got hurt...but didn't make it."

Silence ensued, followed by loud crying that was muffled by Shun's shoulder. "Why?! I had a perfectly good life, and this happens! First, I'm forced to be buried with Hydron. Now Grandfather's dead. I have nothing to live for."

"You still have me." Seconds later, something exploded in the air. "Is that what I think it is?"

"What's wrong?"

After making sure that people outside were still asleep, Shun stepped further away from the work zone until he saw the small fireworks unobstructed in the sky. "Chris and Soon probably found another body. I told them about working overtime, so they didn't want to bother me by coming here."

"That means you need to leave. Who will take care of Grandfather's burial?"

"I know. I'm sorry. Chris and Soon tried their best to stop his bleeding, but Anubias went crazy that day. I'll ask Chris and Soon for help for burial and funeral. We'll think of something." This time, he brushed her bangs aside and left a warm kiss on her forehead. "Trust me. If I can't save you from this mess, then I won't let Spectra or the others continue with their mess."

"Thank you, Shun. Go solve this mystery while you still can."

The raven-haired youth left a note at the check-in station and sprinted all the way to the fireworks' originating location. Chris and Soon were about to light another firework when they saw the land surveyor arrive. "Sorry I'm late. People take Hydron too seriously. What's up?"

"Hopefully, you're the only person that understood and took the fireworks show seriously, but we have some backup plans of our own," answered Chris before leading Shun too the true location of the body.

"This body is scary," Soon commented. "The wounds are even deeper and messier than before. It's as if the killer deliberately wiggled his weapon into the wound to induce unimaginable pain. That's worse than just bloodletting alone."

"I can see that..." Shun replied, taking a deep breath to calm himself down before approaching the male body. _Even with Hydron dead, bodies still show up. But there are still too many uncertainties at play here._ After complete observation of the wounds, he touched the victim's sleeves.

 _A man laid nearly lifelessly on the ground as someone else stood on the other side of the dark room. The other person grabbed a book from a shelf and flipped to a certain page, then began chanting something. The man on the ground heard the sounds and screamed._

 _The other person's chanting grew louder as they grabbed something from a desk's drawer. From that direction, a metal object reflected light, but then it was clear that the person used a second sharp object to carve into the first shiny object. After minutes of ear-piercing noises, the other person came over and knocked out the first man once more with a blow to the head._

Shun didn't realized that he fell to the ground and popped up after exiting the vision. "It said ' **1000 FOR** ' something, but I couldn't read the rest."

"What are you talking about?" Chris asked.

"It was the murder weapon. I'm sure it was a knife...maybe a dagger. I saw most of the blade tip, but couldn't see the hilt at all. There were words on the blade, but anything beyond the initial ' **1000 FOR** 'was either too blurry or not etched at all."

"Etched? Why decorate a knife like that?" Soon wondered.

"Also, the killer grabbed a book from a shelf and began speaking in a foreign language. Not really reading directly out of the book or singing, but it was weird, and they knew what they were doing. I feel like I've seen this room before, but I can't remember."

The blonde and auburn-haired girl exchanged glances and sighed. "Sounds like a spell."

"A spell? Like from a spell book? How is that possible? Those actually **exist**?" _Then again, traveling back in time is also technically impossible._ "I take that back. Everything is making sense, yet not. Tomorrow, I need to go to the palace library and find whatever I can for Alice's sake."

"Good luck, Shun. We believe in you..."

 **-x-x-x-x-x-**

"That only things that my mother left for me before passing away was a ring and poem to memorize. Nothing more."

Upon hearing Mira's words, Runo stared at the string of empty rings on her wrist. "I can't believe that all five descendants of the very first ring guardians know each other in present day. This can't be a coincidence. Ace has a point. Somebody's playing us."

"Where's **your** ring?" Marucho asked.

Mira lowered her voice and replied, "It's in my safety deposit box at the bank. Before the person in black taped my mouth and left me here, he asked me about a ring too. I thought he meant some typical piece gold or silver jewelry, but he might have been referring to this special ring because he the ring he wants is something that everyone in my family would know. I swear I didn't tell my father or brother anything that my mother told me. I'm sorry for giving you all a hard time about everything lately."

"It's not your fault, Mira," Joe insisted. "If Keith wants to stop sponsoring us, then we can only accept it as reality. What I'm more concerned about is why our kidnappers just abandoned us here, where we conveniently found you."

"I have a text from the person in black." Mira opened her messages and showed it everyone. "He probably sent this while I was still tied up and prior to when you all came." The message itself said, **"Call back when you've made up your mind. You can't trace this number's location, so save it."**

"I think we have no choice but to call him," Dan sighed. "However, we **can** lure him over and steal the box back. I'm pretty sure he has it because it's not with any of us. Mira, you're going to make that call, and we'll teach you what to say."

"Thanks for helping, Dan." After everyone agreed on what to do, Mira called the number and waited. "Hi, this is Mira. You said to call back when I've made up my mind."

"Hello there, Miss Fermin," answered the same digitally altered voice. "Where's the ring?"

"Bring the metal box over to the abandoned water plant where you left me. I know you have it. I'll take you to my security deposit box afterwards."

"You'd better be up to this."

"I wouldn't call you if I weren't."

"Good. See you soon."

Mira hung up and breathed deeply. "That was scary. What now?"

Fabia answered, "Given all the miscellaneous stuff around here, we can set a net to trap the assailants and steal the box before running off. Dan and Joe are working on it right now. The others and I will search for the fastest way out."

The earth ring guardian nodded and held her chest as she leaned against a metal pole. Ace approached her and asked, "You weren't expecting this, huh?"

"I knew how serious this was when my mother told me this on her deathbed, but I never thought that someone would come after me for it. I know you all hate me for siding with Keith in terms of sponsorship, but what could I do? He watches my every move."

"Why didn't you tell him from the start that you didn't want to join the family business?"

"I tried! First, Father wouldn't let me study archaeology because he said it was 'pathetic'. He forced me to study business and STEM. I thought I could cut off all ties from you, but after Father passed away, Keith wanted to sponsor all your excavations...until now. Keith knew that I was friends with all of you, and he did that on purpose shove it in my face. But here I am—kidnapped and clueless because of a family secret that ties to your metal box situation. What are the odds of that?"

"Mira...you could've just told us from the beginning—"

"Guys, they're here!" Runo whispered. Everyone except Dan and Joe gathered together on ground level.

Mira approached the person in black and asked sternly, "Where the box?"

"Not until you come over. Mylene, bring the box. Sid, drag that girl over here." As the two henchmen executed their tasks, the person in black looked around and asked, "Where are Dan Kuso and Joe Brown?!"

"Up here!" they answered, letting go of various ropes and dropping a net full of debris on the person in black and his henchmen. "Grab the box and call the police!"

After a minor fight, Mira grabbed the box from Mylene and ran. "Lead the—ouch!"

The earth ring guardian tripped, but was caught by the mint-haired intern in time. "I know you're in a hurry to escape, but don't run too fast."

"Thanks, Ace. I'm sorry for everything."

"Now's not the time to talk, although I'm surprised that archaeology brought us together again after those years."

"Me too..."

As the archaeology team and their friends ran away, Mylene scoffed at her failure. "Boss, I must apologize for my rash actions."

"Same here," Sid added. "What do we do now?"

"First, we get this net and junk off our bodies before the police find us. Second, we need to initiate Plan B..."

* * *

 **Dan: For once, I'm not stupid AND came up with an escape plan!**

 **Runo: You do realize that this was an "all-too-perfect" escape plan, right?**

 **Fabia: I had a feeling that Dan would show off AGAIN...**

 **Joe: If Mira retrieves her ring, then does mean we can open the box?!**

 **Everyone: OMG YES WE FINALLY GET TO SEE WHAT'S** —

 **Me: Everybody shut up! Since when did you guys ever start theorizing or hypothesizing about the plot?**

 **Ace: We are fed up with this wild goose chase that has led us to nowhere productive.**

 **Marucho: NOW will you please tell us how and where to find** —

 **Me: Surprise! *creates flashbang and smoke screen before disappearing***

 **Dan: How did SHE come up with a better escape plan that ME?!**

 **Runo: Who do you think she is, Dan?!**

 **Me: *stands by the doorway with gas mask on* Next chapter will feature another major death, a secret group chat, a heartfelt letter, and an open box! Review for now!**


End file.
